Neptunia Sins: Love Within Ruin
by PurpleHeartNep
Summary: An accidental event ends up sending Neptune to a new universe where she meets an amnesiac cyborg named Casshern. She decides to assist him on his journey to find out about his past along with trying to find A way to end the ruin. However things take a turn for the unexpected when their friendship blossoms into something more than they had anticipated. Cover Art Coming Soon
1. The Prologue

(Hello there, Reader. The Prologue may be short but I promise you the rest of the chapters will be much longer after this, Please Review your opinions and critiques or whatever you want to say.)

"I…I…did this with my own two hands? I really am a monster!" The brown haired brunette exclaimed with warm tears beginning to develop at the brim of his woe filled green eyes, holding the body of the purple haired woman in his arms as he trembled in both the horror and sadness of his actions. The purple haired woman's body was severely injured from head to toe. Blood trickled down her once beautiful but now atrociously bruised face as she weakly lifted up her shaking hand, placing it on the grief-stricken male's face and gave him a weak smile. "Now…don't…g-go…blaming yourself now. Y-You…weren't yourself…." she winced in pain as she began to cough, spitting up blood as she did so but still forcing herself to smile. "You…aren't…a monster…" she finished, trying to caress his cheek with the same tender love and affection she had always preformed the action with before her current state.

"H-How can you say that after what I've done to you?!" The male shouted, confused by her words as the tears that had been slowly forming at the brim of his eyes finally spilled over, rolling down his cheeks before falling onto the quickly dying maiden's face. The woman stared deeply into her lover's eyes with her own electric blue irises, feeling the life seep out of her faster and faster with every passing second. "Because….no matter what you do… I…. still… love… y-" before she could even manage to utter the last word of her sentence, her eyes began to close as her hand slowly slid down his cheek. The man in white quickly grabbed her hand, holding it firmly against where she had placed it initially, his eyes gazing over her now lifeless body in an a desperate attempt to see some form of movement.

Silence loomed over them for several seconds, the males brown bangs completely enshrouding his face as he sat there, with the only woman who had promised to stay by his side forever, gone; and it was his entire fault. Acceptance became sadness, and sadness became anger as his gaze shifted upward at the sky. "I finally understand what you meant that day… I can't live like this…." The brunette's body started to violently tremble before he finally screamed as loud as he possible could, his loud, agonized wails echoing throughout the entire desolate plain with an amount of grief that was too great for words. The only thing he wanted at this very moment was to be lifted from his curse of eternal life, being free to die and able to escape his now broken and empty life. It was at this moment, he realized just how important she was to him.


	2. Chapter 1: The Meeting

"So this is what the scientifical people were up to! Some kinda….transporter…thingy…." The lilac haired girl muttered to herself as she moved around the large machine in the middle of the lab with a highly interested expression on her face. There was no one in the lab to monitor the young girl's actions so she was more than free to do whatever she liked without the threat of being stopped. Then again, she was the Patron Goddess presiding over the nation so regardless of whether or not someone did see her, she wouldn't get in any serious form of trouble; That is, unless her oracle was to find out about her behavior, and the goddess most certainly did not want that on her plate.

The girl stepped inside of the device and started look around at its contents. Her violet eyes soon fixated themselves on what seemed to be a disc drive on the inside of the machine. She tilted her head, looking the drive over carefully for a good thirty seconds before snapping her fingers as if she came into the realization of something. "I wonder what would happen if I put a disc in here…" she said to herself before quickly reaching in her left jersey dress pocket and taking out her N-Gear. "Let's see…. Hm…. Any random disc will do."

She scanned through her inventory for a quick moment, taking the very first disc she could find and removing it from her N-Gear's inventory and into her hand. She placed her disc into the drive and started to hum a cheerful tune to herself as she waited for something to happen. Much to her disappointment, everything stayed the same as it had been prior to the insertion of the disc.

Her left eye twitched slightly in minor annoyance at this fact which led her to fold her arms and begin making her way out. "Laaaaaame… must be unf-" before she could finish her sentence and even make it out of the machine; the doors closed which ultimately locked her inside. "Nepu?!" she sounded, her facial expression which was once annoyed and disappointed, now shocked and slightly worried. She flailed around at the door, desperately trying to find some way to open it before things went entirely wrong. The entire inside of the transporter started to glow a bright blue as the girl resorted to simply banging her fists against the door in the hopes that someone would hear her.

Before the young goddess knew it, everything flashed a bright white and she immediately found herself being transported as she had originally wanted. The door automatically opened itself afterwards at the exact moment the scientists had returned from their break, entirely unaware of what happened and resumed their work as if nothing had happened.

The man in the white suit wandered around the barren wasteland with his head down, clearly deep in thought as he advanced in the desolated unknown. The world before him had been cast into an apocalyptic state caused by his own actions. He had no recollection of who he was or the sins that he had committed. All he had to go by was what people told him on his journey. Everywhere he went people called him a monster, the bringer of ruin, and the one who killed the sun that was named moon. The feeling of guilt and suffering eternally lingered inside of him, and he wanted nothing more than to be lifted from his cursed life of immortality.

If he was the source of the world's current condition, then why had he been granted immortality while those who wished for it were plunged into the inescapable loom of deaths inevitability? Was it to prolong his suffering, watching the world as he knew it slowly ebbing away into untimely destruction and chaos? So many questions raced through his mind and yet he could never find the answers to any of them. Why did he have to shoulder the burden of this unforgivable sin? If he could take it all back, he would. He was a monster, capable of nothing more than death. A demon that destroyed everything he came into contact with. He was….

"NEPUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU UUU!" The voice of a girl sounded, causing the brunette male to look up into the sky only to see a lilac haired girl soaring down at and extremely fast speed. "Ah…" the man in white held his hand out, his eyes slightly widened at the suddenness of the event taking place. He was unsure of what to do as the girl pierced into the ground like a spear, making a huge sand cloud form around the area. The male simply stood there in the same position as he had been prior to her hitting the ground in the most violent girl lifted her head up from the ground, seeing the male standing only a few feet away from her with a confused look on his face.

She blinked for a moment before immediately recognizing him and shooting up from the ground in a standing position, her face wearing her usual cheerful expression. The lilac haired goddess quickly dusted herself off and placed both of hands on her hips with a big goofy grin on her face. "Hiya, Cashy!" The brunette blinked once and then tilted his head, even more confused at what she had just said. "Ca…shy?" he thought as he examined the smiling child before him with both wonder and interest. He assumed that 'Cashy' was supposed to be a shortened version of his name, which was Casshern. This made him question how she knew his name even though he had no idea who she was. The possibility of the girl being someone he had known before losing his memory certainly came to mind as he pondered on this thought.

"Ah…Hello…" Casshern finally said, still looking at the strange girl in front of him with the same exact expression on his face as before. The girl, who appeared to be in her preteens, scratched the back of her head with a small giggle. "Oh right! Totally forgot to introduce myself! I aaaaam NEPTUNE! Nice to meet, ya!" she said, giving the man in the white suit an enthusiastic thumbs up.

"Neptune…" Casshern muttered to himself, repeating her name to completely register it into his memory. "That's mah name! Don't wear it out!" Neptune exclaimed with same, unchanging vibrant enthusiasm. Neptune took a quick scan of the area before looking back at the man before her with a curious stare. "Why is this place all doomy gloomy and funky?" She asked, placing her left index finger on her cheek as she looked up at him. The green eyed male blinked at her choice of words, only slightly understanding what she was asking him.

"The world is like this because of me." He responded, holding his head down in shame at his own words, his eyes focused on the ground beneath them. Neptune tilted her to the side and blinked twice, not believing a single word of what he had just told her. "You did all this? There is totally no way your adorable baby-faced self did this! Well…not on purpose anyway! I'm sure it was totally accident!" she gave him a big smile and walked closer to him, taking hold of both of his hands and positioning her head so that she could see his face. Casshern looked down at the girl, surprised at her words.

She had just met him and was told that he was the cause of the world's current state, yet her demeanor hadn't changed one bit. Why was she so happy? How could she still manage to keep a smile on her face in a place like this? "So where do you live? Is it nearby? Can we walk there now? I'm tired of standing here." Asked the goddess, continuing to wear her bright smile a she waited for him to respond to her. "I…don't have a home…well not that I know of. I know nothing of my past, not even myself but my enemies call me…Casshern…" he answered, looking away from her.

"So you're an amnesiac! Wow that sucks." Neptune released her new companion's hands and reached back into her pocket, taking out her N-Gear. She couldn't help but notice a feature she had never seen before on it that read 'Return Home' on the upper left hand corner. Perhaps that was the update they had her install a few weeks ago. That would mean that if she used it she would probably be able to go home. Her unlucky day seemed so much luckier with this newly realized piece of information.

"Hey, Cashy! Why don'tcha come back home with me and maybe we can find a way to get your memory back!" Casshern looked over at her with slightly widened eyes. Get his memory back? Was it possible? The offer made by the girl started to make Casshern feel anxious. Would this really be the end of all his searching? Would she really be able to help him find out more about his past? There was only one way to find out.

"If you think you can help… then…why not…" he finally spoke, nodding his head in agreement to her offer, hoping that this would be the small glimmer of hope that he head been searching for. Neptune pressed the button she had recently found making a large blue portal appear in front of them immediately after. "That's our ride back! Come on!" she quickly grabbed the man in white's hand and ran into the portal without even bothering to wait for him to say something back. He willingly followed behind her and proceeded into the portal as well, albeit still somewhat confused.

It was this very moment, which signaled the start of their story… what awaited Casshern on the other side of the blue light? Would he finally find the answers he sought so desperately after? The only way to find out was to advance forward and see where fate took him.


	3. Chapter 2: Resolve and Transformation

The brown haired male and the lilac haired girl stepped out of the portal and found themselves directly in Neptune's room. "Wow! So this thingy literally takes me back home! I know who's getting a pay raise later~~~" Neptune said to herself happily, clapping her hands together as she giggled with excitement. The portal closed behind them as Casshern looked around the girl's room in awe. He had never seen anything like it before. The room was so bright and filled with life even though they were the only ones in it. Having been only surrounded by a world constantly in decay, a place like this was truly amazing to him. Is this what a world without ruin looked like?

Neptune released Casshern's hand and turned around to face him, nodding her head. "Okay, Cashy. You wait here and I'm gonna ask Histy if she can help you. Be right back!" the girl took off running out the door, leaving the man in white alone in her room as he continued to examine every nook and cranny of it with his eyes. He wandered over to the bunny plush toy placed on the side of her bed and picked it up, looking it over a few times before placing it back down where he had found it.

His gaze then shifted over to the large window on the other side of the room and he walked over and peered outside, his eyes widening in even more awe at the sight of seeing a beautiful futuristic city. The people, the nature, and just the simple existence of life had him stricken with more awe than he could put into words. A world without ruin; It was most certainly a paradise of sorts in his eyes.

Neptune wandered around her Basilicom in search of her fairy-like oracle, yelling her name every now and again in the hopes of getting her attention. "HIIIIIIIIIIIIISTYYYYYYY! WHERE ARE YA?!" she eventually found the person of her search doing paperwork in her office. The blonde haired fairy quickly took notice of the young girl and proceeded to speak. "Neptune, have you finished your wo-" Neptune immediately cut the oracle off mid-sentence and started speaking over her as if what she had to say was of much more importance. "Hey, Histy. I got a friend who's an amnesiac and I was wonderin' if you knew how to get his memory back!"

The blonde haired fairy narrowed her eyes a bit at Neptune's rudeness and proceeded to speak once more. "It is rude to interrupt someone while they're speaking. Honestly, as Patron Goddess a certain level of etiquette and re-" Neptune cut off the fairy for second time, stomping her feet impatiently. "Yeah, yeah, yeah! Pinky fingers and tippy princess toes! GOT IT! Now, answer my question! It's really, really, REAAAALLY important!" She whined, shaking from side to side like a wet dog.

Histoire remained silent for a moment before sighing and shaking her head. Neptune had always and eternally would be the most difficult person for her to deal with. Since she wished to return back to her own duties, the fairy simple ignored Neptune's rude behavior and proceeded in answering her question. "There is no way to restore the memory of amnesiac. The only remedy is time and patience. Eventually your friend will begin to remember things on his own." Histoire finally explained which of course led to the purple haired goddess sighing. "That is so LAME. There isn't medication or nothin'? Ugh, fine. Thank you." Neptune marched away with disappointment clearly visible in her statement.

Histoire was the big book of everything and if she said there wasn't another way then there probably wasn't another way. She didn't want to go back into her room and tell her new friend that she couldn't help him. In fact, she utterly refused to say that she couldn't help him. She may have been a mediocre Patron Goddess but she certainly was no mediocre friend. She had set her mind. She was going to help Casshern find out who he was one way or the other. It's not like she had anything better to do. Gamindustri was at a time of peace, and going out on adventure again would be fun.

The only difference this time would be that she would be traversing an entirely new land unknown to her. New discoveries, new people, new places, everything! The very thought excited the adventurous spirit inside of her. Maybe she was getting a bit ahead of herself. Perhaps traveling around in her own universe before heading out into a land she knew nothing about would be safer. If she felt like they were at loose ends here, they would go to his world. Yes, that was the plan and she was sticking to it.

Neptune finally arrived back in her room and noticed the man in white staring out the window as if he had saw the most wonderful thing ever in his entire existence. "Cashy! I'm back!" She called out to him, waving her right hand in the air with a big smile on her face. Casshern's eyes moved away from the window and over to the young girl at the doorway. "Neptune…" he said in his usual soft voice as the girl walked over to him, placing her hands on her hips, keeping the same exact smile on her face. "Well, Histy said she can't help you!" she blurted out, still maintaining her happy demeanor in the hopes that the bad news wouldn't upset him.

Casshern fell into a state of pure disappointment as he looked down at the floor, closing his eyes and trying he digested what she had just told him. So not even Neptune could help him get his memory back. The excitement he had initially felt began to melt away into a sea of depression. "And here I thought I was one step closer to finding out more about myself…" he said, opening his eyes and looking down at his hands.

Neptune pouted and walked over to him, placing her hands over his and smiling once more. "Don't be so gloom and doom, Cashy! You gotta look over the rainbow, way up high! Just because Histy can't help you doesn't mean it's game over!" She said in an attempt to boost his spirits in the best way she could. "I guess…" he mumbled more to himself than to her causing Neptune to shake her head in defiance at his doubt. "No! No guessing! This is the title screen and we're clicking New Game! This is only the beginning! I'm not givin' up on my buddy! I'll help you get your memory back! I totally promise, Cashy!"

Casshern looked over at her in slight shock at her declaration. Why was she so willing to help a complete stranger, and even call them her friend? She was unlike any person he had ever encountered before. He couldn't bring himself to believe her words were any less than true. She honestly seemed like she genuinely wanted to help him. Thinking about this, a small smile appeared on his face. "Thank you….Neptune…." Neptune's eyes sparkled in awe the moment she saw his smile. "awwww! You're so adorable, Cashy!" she squealed and randomly started to hug him.

"Ah…Neptune?" he said, looking down at the girl who had now had her arms firmly wrapped around him as she jumped up and down slightly. "You've been all emo and depressed looking ever since we first met and now you're smiling 'n stuff!" She exclaimed cheerfully, nuzzling up against his chest as he continued to look down at her with a very bewildered expression.

Neptune pulled away after a few seconds and then threw her right first into the air with her opposite hand on her corresponding hip. "I have an idea. You need to chillax and stop thinkin' about all the negative stuff! Today we're gonna have fun!" the adolescent youngster declared exultantly. "…Fun?" he replied with a very questioning tone in his voice. Neptune nodded her head quickly and grabbed his hand, her lilac locks bouncing around as she ran straight out of the door. Like last time, Casshern simply allowed himself to be dragged along by the young girl as she proceeded on to wherever she had intended for them to go.

"We're here!" Neptune bellowed as she released the male's hand and twirled around on the tiptoes of left foot. Her dress of course, rose up only slightly as she spun, before she quickly stopped and faced him with a wide grin on her face. The man in the white suit looked around, examining their new location. There were people and smiling faces as far as the eye could see, along with strange contraptions set up everywhere. "There are so many people here… where are we?"

Neptune placed her arms behind her back, balancing on one foot as she turned around. "This is an amuuuuusement park!" she answered, placing her foot back on the ground and walking forward. The male followed behind, trying his best to keep up and not lose sight of her as his eyes continue to glide around the scenery in absolute wonderment. "An amusement park…"he said to himself. Neptune had eventually made her way to a nearby roller-coaster and pointed at the huge metallic structure that ascended high into the sky. "We're getting on this!"

Casshern looked up at the ride, noticing the people who were already currently occupying it were screaming as if they were afraid for there lives. This made him worry as his attention averted back to the child in front of him. "Do you think this is safe? These people don't look like they're having very much… fun." He spoke with concern clearly visible in his tone.

"Yup! It's totally safe! They're screaming because they feel the ADRENALINE PUMPING THROUGH THEIR VEINS " She shouted, pumping her fists in the air repeatedly as the ride came to a stop to allow the passengers off and more on. "Come on, Cashy!" she immediately took hold of his hand and began to skip ahead of the line, completely ignoring all their complaints as she took a seat in one of the carts. Casshern hesitantly sat next to her, trying to erase all concerns from his conscious as the safety belts wrapped themselves around the pair automatically. This startled him and caused him to jump slightly.

"Haha~ don't worry, Cashy! Those are just the seat-belts that make sure you don't fall off mid-air and DIE~" She explained to him, her face still bright and cheerful as if she wasn't at all afraid of what was about to come next. Casshern nodded his head and resumed trying to relax himself as the ride began its slow, steady, take off up to the top.

All he could hear around was whispering and on the side of him he could hear Neptune singing the Jaws theme to add suspense as they traveled up higher and higher. In due time, they had finally reached the top, sitting there in complete silence. "One….two…." Neptune had begun the count down as the cart began to tip forward before finally ascending downwards at an alarming speed. "THREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! AHHHHHHHHHHH!" She screamed as if she terrified for her very life while her expression was the exact opposite, Casshern didn't react at all, he simply looked around at all the screaming people, bewildered by what he saw. They sounded as if they were afraid but their faces were so joyful. He could not fathom what was going on at the current moment and simply sat there, confused during the entire ride. Was this what she meant by 'Adrenaline?' Humans were so difficult to understand.

Once the ride had finally reached its stop, the passengers had all gotten off, cheerfully talking about there ride as Neptune swayed from side to side like a drunken sailor as she walked away from the attraction. "That was aweeeesome! Wasn't it, Cashy?" she asked him, looking over at the brunette walking beside her. "I…didn't quite understand what happened." He said as Neptune made her way in front of him and tilted her head to the side. "Whaddya mean? You didn't have fun?" she asked, slightly disappointed. "Just…never take me back on something like that ever again." He requested.

Neptune shrugged her shoulders and sighed softly at his request. "Alrighty~! I guess roller-coaster's aren't for everybody. Oh well! Let's go get some food!" she shouted and began making her way towards the concession stands. "But…I don't eat." Casshern suddenly said which made her stop dead in her tracks and walk backwards over to him. "What?" she asked, trying to see if she heard that right the first time around "I'm robotic, I don't need food." He explained to her which made her mouth drop in shock. "YOU'RE SOME KINDA ROBOT?! I would have NEVER guessed! You're so human like You don't go around doing all that beep boop-boop bop beep beep processing processing does not compute STUFF!" said the girl as she preformed some outrageous robot dance with her last sentence.

"…" Casshern had no idea how to reply to her comment and so decided to respond with a simple nod of the head. As usual, he failed to understand anything she had just said and merely stared down at her with his usual blank expression. "Wowzers! My friend is some kinda Robot, Android, Cyborg thing!" Neptune seemed really happy about the news, jumping around as if she had just won the lottery. "Forget the food then! I wasn't all that hungry anyway! Let's go ride the looooooove boat, Cashy!" abruptly changing the topic of the conversation to something else in a matter of seconds.

"Love…boat?" Casshern said with a questioning tone, tilting his head slightly as he awaited further explanation from her. "It's the boat you go on when you're in looooove with someone. You take your sweetheart by the hand and get on the boat, get all nice 'n snuggly wuggly, then you mooooove in for the kiss. "She explained, hugging herself with her eyes closed as she spun around one good time and removed her arms from around her body with a small giggle.

"A boat you go on when you're in love? Hm… so…do you feel that way about me? Is that why you're taking me on it?" he asked her. His knowledge of human emotions was limited and he found them rather difficult to understand. He didn't quite fathom the meaning of the complex emotion known as 'love'. "Nope! We're goin' on to make fun of people! I wanna see some rejections ugly people or whatever."

Casshern nodded his head, believing to understand what she meant….somewhat. "So you don't love me, I understand. So should we really be getting on a boat that requires you to have a certain emotion for another person to ride?" Neptune shook her head wildly. "No, no, no, no, no! I do love you, Cashy!"

The man in white who had thought he had reached an understanding had quickly become confused yet again. "But…you just said you didn't…." Neptune rubbed the back of her head and released a soft sigh. "Oh yeah. You're a robot, android, cyborg, thingy. Let me explain! There are like different levels of love 'n stuff. You got the family love that you feel for relatives or whatever. Then you got the friend love. That's what we have! But the kinda love I'm talkin' about for the boat is the lovey dovey wovey guchi guchi goo kinda love! Understand?" She gave him a bright smile after her ridiculous, uninformative, explanation on the various types of love you can feel for a person.

"I have no idea what she just said…." Casshern thought as he nodded his head as if he had actually understood what she had just said in contrast to his thoughts. "I think… I understand." He lied. "Good! Now, onto the Boat of wuuuuuvvv!" she exclaimed, still exerting rays of happiness as she skipped her way to the guy running the attraction. "Hiya! We wanna get on the loooooove boat!"

The man looked at her, a girl no older than thirteen and then at Casshern, a male possibly in his early twenties. "I apologize, but no." he refused which of course made Neptune angry. "Whaddya mean NO?! I order you to let me on!" she demanded, stomping her foot down and looking at him with an annoyed face. "I…just can't. I'm sorry."

Casshern decided to also try to assist Neptune in her endeavors. "Please, let us on." He said in his gentle, nonthreatening voice, but the man continued to refuse even him. "It just…wouldn't look right. I'm sorry. I really am." He continued to repeat over and over again. Neptune had finally given up trying to reason with him and sighed loudly. "So you're saying you don't want Cashy to look like pedophilistic sexual predator because I look like a kid. I totally get'cha~" she finally said, placing her both of her hands on her hips and looking over to the side.

"I'm glad you finally under-"before the man could even finish his sentence he was interrupted by the lilac haired girl saying "Then it looks like I'll just have to make a change!" A cylindrical pillar of white light surrounded Neptune suddenly which of course made Casshern's eyes widen in shock. "N-Neptune…?" he said in an almost whisper right before the pillar of light vanished revealing an entirely new figure in Neptune's place.

Casshern's eyes remained the same as he now saw a WOMAN in front of him, any trace of a little girl now gone. She wore a skintight black and purple bodysuit that hugged every crevice her body, accentuating her curves perfectly. Her hair was similar to Neptune's but was much longer and a light purple instead of lilac, placed in two twintails. Casshern searched desperately for the little girl he once knew as Neptune but could not find her anywhere within this new figure before him. "I believe I am now physically acceptable to be seen with him on this ride, am I not?" she said, smirking almost at her own statement. "Humana-Humana-Humana…." The man operating the attraction seemed to be at a loss for words at Neptune's transformation and started to nosebleed.

The woman turned over to Casshern and smiled endearingly at him as if nothing had happened at all. "Casshern, I believe it is….." she saw his expression and blinked " ….Casshern?" Neptune couldn't help but notice the man in white backing away from her in what seemed to be fear. She inched her way closer and closer to him as he moved further and further away. "Casshern, there is no need to be afraid. It's me, Neptune." She tried to assure him as he shook his head in disbelief of her words.

"Should? I refer to you by nickname? Um…Caaaashy?" she said, trying to mimic the same childish tone she normally had in her human form, gently taking his hand and staring deeply into his green irises with her now electric blue eyes. "I probably should have told you this initially. Erm…how can I explain? I'm the goddess who rules over this nation. I have two forms, human and goddess. This… is my goddess form. Please, I assure you, I am the same person."

Casshern stared back into her eyes, somehow seeing that she was in fact the same little girl as before only older in body and actually capable of making literal sense. He slowly nodded his head in acceptance of her truly being Neptune, albeit still somewhat shaken up at her sudden change in appearance. "Good, now let's board the boat shall we?" she continued to hold his hand, guiding him over to the boat and sitting down with him.

The boat took off a few seconds after, leading them into a dimly lit tunnel. Casshern simply stared down at his hands which of course caught the newly transformed Neptune's attention. "Is something the matter? You know you can tell me anything. I'll listen~" said the purple haired woman in a failed attempt to lighten up the highly awkward atmosphere. Casshern shook his head and turned his head in the opposite direction. "Your appearance is just…a bit…unsettling…" he managed to say.

Neptune blinked in the same innocence as her human form and tilted her head, somewhat confused by what he meant. "What do you mean by 'unsettling', Casshern?" she asked curiously in the hopes of receiving a more elaborated answer. "Just…forget it…" he said in a slight whisper. Neptune, not wanting to press the matter further, decided to drop the topic entirely and move onto something else. Her attention turned to the boat in front of her where she saw two people cuddling up to each other.

Normally this would have been cute if it wasn't for one thing that just made it all fall apart. "Is her head triangular or that just her hair?" she questioned out loud. Casshern remained quiet which made her sigh. "We came on this attraction to make fun of people and your not doing anything at all… are you sure you're okay?" she asked him once more only to get a mere head nod back. "Okay…" she said, not believing him but accepting his response as the boat finally reached the end.

Neptune got out first, then Casshern who continued to look away from her. The awkwardness was starting to affect her mood greatly. "Shall we head home? I think we've had enough fun for the day." She suggested, giving a warm smile to him. She knew the sudden change in his behavior was due to her transformation, she decided to stay in her goddess form for an extended time so that he could grow to be comfortable with her both ways.

In the meantime, she was going to treat him exactly the same as always so that he would soon come to the realization that she wasn't that much different from her humans self. The blue eyed goddess, gently grabbed his hand and started make her way towards the amusement park's exit so that they could return back to Basilicom.

By the time they had arrived back to her room in the Basilicom, nightfall had already reached the capital city. Neptune released a small yawn, looking over at her male friend with a smile. "Let's go to bed, it's rather late. Luckily, Nepgear is spending the week at her friends place so she won't question why you're here." She said, switching her Chest processor to something more suitable for sleeping. She made her way over to the bottom bunk and rested on the wall side.

Casshern stared at her, uncertain of what to do. "You don't know how to sleep?" she asked him, sensing that he was absolutely clueless on the matter. "Not…really…" he responded, looking down at the floor beneath his feet. "Hehe… okay. I'll teach you. Just copy what I'm doing right now and lay next to me." She patted the empty space large enough for one extra person that was next to her. Casshern nodded his head in understanding and walked over to the bed, resting his body down in the same manner as her in the spot she had indicated. "Good…now close your eyes…and…enter…hm…standby mode~" she said.

The cybernetic man slowly closed his eyes and became entirely motionless afterwards. He had mimicked a sleeping person perfectly. The deity turned off the lights in the bedroom and turned over in the opposite direction. "Goodnight….Casshern….." were her final words before she drifted off into a deep, peaceful sleep.


	4. Chapter 3: Human or Machine?

"Over here, Casshern." The purple haired woman called out to the man in white, waving her hands in the air to get his attention. She was standing in the middle of the front row which was directly in front of the stage where the popular J-Pop singer, Kizumi Nana, would be performing.

Neptune had recently bought tickets for a concert in Lastation which she had initially planned to take Nepgear to but decided to bring Casshern along instead. She wanted him to experience new things as she tried to navigate his mind from his own personal conflict even for just a small moment.

Casshern took notice of the woman and swiftly made his way towards her. "I'm sorry, I was looking around and lost sight of you…" he explained, holding his head down slightly. Neptune smiled and lifted his chin up with her index finger. "No need to apologize, I completely understand. Let's sit, shall we?" she said, sitting down in her seat as Casshern did the same.

Casshern looked around the large room, seeing more and more people enter and occupy the available seats. "Neptune, why are there so many people here?" he asked, still gazing around with curiosity visible in his eyes. Neptune handed him one of the glow sticks crossed her legs. "They're here for the concert. Once everything gets set up we're going to hear someone sing." She explained to him, waving her glow stick around slightly as she spoke.

"I see. And what is this for..?" He questioned, looking over the strange item she had just given to him. "That is what we call a 'glow stick.' You bend it, and it starts to glow. Like this." Neptune held her glow stick by both end and gave it gentle bend causing the blue liquid on the inside to glow as she said it would. Casshern's eyes lit up in awe as he saw the dull blue water turn bright. "Now it's your turn~"

The robotic man held the glow stick by both ends just as she had done before him and proceeded to bend it with just enough force to make his glow as well. "I did it…!" he said with a small hint of excitement in his tone. The blue-eyed goddess released soft giggle at his reaction and nodded her head. "Indeed you did. Good job." She congratulated him as the lights in the concert hall started to dim.

Every seat in the room was filled as the concertgoers waited silently, readying their glow sticks for when the song started. "Now just copy what I do next…." She informed him right before the playing of a harp and violin could be heard onstage. Casshern looked at her and nodded his head, watching her closely.

The spotlight appeared on Kizumi Nana as she began to sing the song SUPER GENERATION ~Museum Style~. Everyone, including Neptune, slowly raised their glow sticks into the air and began to wave them back and forth. Casshern copied her just as he was told and began wave his as well, turning his attention towards the woman on stage.

The beautiful voice of the singer, resonated throughout the entire room as everyone watched her perform with a smile on their face, enthralled by the beauty of her angelic singing voice. Casshern's glow stick eventually came to a stop, bringing his arm down as he began to stare at the woman on stage. "Casshern…?" Neptune said softly, still waving her own glow stick as she turned her head over to face him. Casshern seemed to be in a trance for he gave the female no response.

Suddenly tears began developing around the brim of his eyes which completely caught the woman off guard. Was he…..crying? How was that even possible? Robots weren't capable of such a thing. So how could he...

Casshern slowly raised his hand, reaching out for the singer on stage which of course caught her attention when she saw his face. She walked over to the edge of the stage and grabbed his hand which led to all the cameras being faced in his direction. Neptune was at a loss for words as she watched the man in white get on stage with the pop singer and be sung to by her.

Meanwhile in the VIP Section of the concert hall, Noire, the goddess presiding over Lastation but more formally known as Black Heart, was also attending the concert. "Whoever that guy is, is very lucky. It's not every day you get be on stage with someone like Kizumi." A soft sigh escaped the flawless goddess' lips as she lightly flipped her long black twintails back, completely unaware of Neptune who was also attending. "Perhaps I'll get on stage with her during the next concert." She said to herself as she watched the events unfold on stage.

Tears slowly streamed down the brown haired male's cheeks as the voice of the woman began to resonate in his soul. It was truly the most beautiful thing he had ever heard in his life. Never had he thought a single person could be capable of producing such an ambrosial sound.

The audience and Kizumi herself also began to cry at the heartwarming scene onstage while Neptune continued to stare in shock and utter bewilderment at the very fact that a ROBOT was crying. She seriously started to doubt if he really was a robot at all. Machines didn't have emotions. Machines couldn't produce tears. Unless…

The song eventually reached its end and Casshern thanked the singer for her song. He then made his way back over to Neptune and smiled at her for the second time. "And thank you…for letting me experience this wonderful moment…" he said. Neptune was silent for a moment before returning his smile, placing both of her hands on his cheeks to wipe his tears away. "You're very welcome…." Was all she said in response.

After the concert Neptune and Casshern proceeded to head home via shuttle back to Planeptune. After exiting off, they began to head back to the Basilicom on foot. "So, I couldn't help but notice you seem to be much more comfortable around me in goddess form now." Said the purple haired female as she placed her hands behind her back and looked up at him. Casshern looked down for a moment before nodding his head.

"Yes, I am. I was just caught off guard when you changed so suddenly. I'm fine now, though." He said in confirmation to her earlier statement. "I'm glad." She said, walking in front of him and stopping. "In that case, I want to show you another place. We still have daylight left."

The brunette tilted his head in interest. "Somewhere else..?" he said in a questioning tone. Neptune nodded her head and took hold of his hand, running off in the opposite direction of where they were initially headed. As usual, Casshern willingly allowed Neptune to drag him along to their next destination.

Within twenty minutes they had arrived at the hot springs. "Where are we now?" Casshern asked curiously as he did his routine scan of the new place. "This is called a hot spring. People come here to relax." She explained, purchasing access to a private spring for the two of them and leading him to the changing area.

Casshern followed behind her, still looking around everywhere as he walked. "This is the changing area. You leave your clothes and personal belongings here so they don't get damaged." She said. "I see. So I have to remove my suit before I can go any further?" he asked her. "Yes, that is correct." She answered.

Almost automatically, Casshern began to remove his suit, making Neptune's face turn light red as she quickly faced away from him. "Why is he getting undressed in front of me like it's okay?!" she thought, looking over her shoulder and seeing only his bare chest area. Casshern, now completely undressed, tilted his head. He was rather confused by the purple haired woman's actions and wondered if he had done something wrong. "Neptune, is everything okay?" he asked her with a bit of concern.

"Yes, it is." She lied, her face still red. It was obvious to her that Casshern was far too innocent for his own good. He clearly had the sexual mind frame of a newborn child, and knowing this, set her mind at ease somewhat. Neptune made her way over to the towels, grabbing one and handing it over to him while keeping her eyes from wandering 'down there'. "Wrap this towel around your waist like this." She said, giving him a brief example of what she wanted him to do.

Casshern nodded his head and did exactly as he was instructed do as Neptune removed her Chest processor which removed her clothes entirely in the blink of an eye. The cybernetic male looked over at the now entirely nude female, staring at her in a non-sexual way of course.

Neptune grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her body before grabbing a second one to wrap her hair up to keep it from getting wet. She then turned her attention back to male, smiling. "Now we can go." She said, walking out the changing area and out to the hot spring.

The male followed behind her and watched her closely as she entered the steaming spring water. He instinctively copied her and got in as well, now standing beside her with his normal blank expression. "ah…doesn't the water feel nice?" said the goddess as she gave a relaxed sigh, looking over at him for confirmation.

Casshern simply nodded his head to answer her, feeling the hot water up against his skin as he watched the steam in front of him. "…so he can feel too?" Neptune thought. "Well you don't have to stay next to me the entire time, feel free to move around if you like." She offered him, giving him an assuring smile to go ahead and do so.

Casshern moved forward in the water, making his way to the other end of the spring. His train of thought had drifted off to the ruin he had caused in his own world. People were dying at this very moment due to his actions. The extreme guilt he had felt was eating him apart, knowing that he was the cause of an entire planet's destruction. Would he ever be able to atone for such a heinous sin? How could one continue living knowing they were the reason for everyone's pain, suffering, and deaths? These thoughts… he often felt like they were suffocating him.

Neptune watched her friend from afar, sensing that something was wrong based off his expression. She wanted to call out to him and ask if he was okay but on the other hand she didn't want him to bother him either. She merely waited there and stared over at the man who, unbeknownst to her, was suffering a great deal on the inside.

The brown haired man eventually took notice of the goddess' staring and turned his head over to her. "Is something wrong, Neptune? Do you want me to come back over?" he asked, thinking that was the reason for her staring. "A-Ah, no! Well, only if you want to come back over." She said, waving her arms from side to side in front of her.

Casshern decided it would be best to go back over so he did, taking his place beside her once more as he looked down at water in silence. Neptune noticed the same expression still plastered on his face and decided to finally ask him what was wrong. "What's on your mind?" she asked him, looking over at the dejected male with her bright electric blue irises. Casshern shook his head. "Nothing…" he answered.

The goddess sighed and decided to try again. "I know something is wrong. Just tell me…That's what friends are for. You can confide all your feelings and thoughts into me." She said, trying to get him to open up to her. Casshern looked over at her from the corner of his eye and the back at water. "I've just been thinking about...my world…" he started to say, closing his eyes. "Everything and everyone is dying…and it's all my fault." he said.

"It's not your fault, Casshern. I'm sure it was an accident. There is no way you would ever do something like that on purpose. I know we haven't known each other long but…. I can tell you're a good person." She said, trying to console him.

"I'm a monster…only capable of bringing death to everything around me." He said, turning his to face the other direction. "Casshern…." She whispered, bringing her arms up slowly and wrapping them around the melancholic male, bringing him into a gentle hug. She couldn't help but feel bad for him. How could she not feel sympathy for someone suffering so much on the inside for something that probably wasn't even really their fault to begin with? Seeing him acting this way only made her further believe he couldn't be a robot. The again, there were different types of robots. He could easily pass for two of them, though one seemed more likely than the other. In fact she was almost certain she knew exactly what he was at this point.

"I don't want to be like this anymore…" Casshern suddenly said. She immediately thought he was talking about her hug and laughed nervously. "Yeah, I can see how a random hug in the hot spring can be awkward. I'll just let go now." She said, preparing to pull away from him. "Not that… I don't want to live feeling this way anymore…" he said, pulling her into a tight embrace and burying his face into the side of her neck.

She slowly put her arms back around him as well, her face slowly turning red due to their closeness. She was thankful he didn't understand the concept of things such as the situation they were in at the current moment. The brunette pulled away shortly after, getting out of the water and starting to walk away.

"W-Wait, Casshern," she called out, getting out as well and proceeding after him, slipping and falling as he turned around at the same moment. Neptune crashed right into Casshern, falling on top of him as her towels fell off entirely in the process.

There they were, staring each other in the eyes. The goddess, now completely bare skinned on top of the half nude brunette. "Are you okay?" Casshern asked her, as if he was not at all fazed by their current position. "Y-Yes…" she said in a complete whisper, practically paralyzed from the awkwardness. They sat there for a few seconds until Casshern began to feel as if something was off about the way they were. "Um.. Could you…" before he said another word further, Neptune quickly stood up, grabbing her towels and walking back to the changing area.

She placed her hand on her chest over where her heart was and released a long drawn out sigh. "My heart's racing…that was so embarrassing… even if he doesn't understand things like that…..I do…" she said as she dried off and placed her HDD Bodysuit Chest processor back on.

Casshern, who had walked in afterwards seemed to have noticed her strange behavior but said nothing of it as he dried himself off as well and began to change back into his own suit.

Once he had finished the two of them began to make their way back to the Planeptune Basilicom. Neptune desperately tried to erase the memory of the moment that had just happened not long ago away from her memory. It could have been worse, but still….

Nightfall had reached the capital city as they finally entered Neptune's room. The goddess couldn't help but notice her sister was still gone. She assumed that she wanted to spend extra time with her Uni since they hadn't seen each other in a while and left it at that. She was actually pretty tired and it wasn't due to being in HDD so long either.

Unlike the other goddesses, to her knowledge, she was the only one who had finally figured out a way to remove the strain of HDD entirely. Neptune was free to stay in her goddess form as long as she pleased thanks to the help of a certain ring which was now in her sister's possession.

After changing into her bedtime clothes, Neptune rested on the bed the same as last time. Casshern did the same as her, remembering what she had told him the previous night. "Oh so you remembered? I'm proud of you." She commended, poking his cheek once before turning on her side and relaxing. "Well anyway… Goodnight Casshern." she said as she closed her eyes. "Sleep well…Neptune…" were the 'robot's' final words before he closed his eyes and became motionless.


	5. Chapter 4: The Promise

"This totally has to be what he is! There is like no other possible explanation!" the human form of a certain goddess said as she read what was on the screen of her laptop. She had been on the internet using the popular search engine known as 'Dungle' to research the many different kinds of robots since early in the morning. It turned out her first thought was correct.

"What who is…?" a familiar voice said behind her, making her jump out of the chair and fall on the ground due to the sudden surprise. She looked up from the floor only to see Casshern standing over her. "Neptune, are you okay?" he asked, concerned. Neptune jumped up immediately and nodded her head. "I'm OOOOOKAY!" She assured the male, putting a big goofy grin on her face.

Casshern, feeling relieved that she was just fine, nodded his head. "You seem rather excited. Did you find out something?" he asked with a curious look. "Yup, yup! I totally know what you are! " she exclaimed, an animated ray of sunshine appearing behind her. The man in white blinked and tilted his head, interested in hearing further from her. "What… I am?" he said in a questioning voice.

Neptune nodded her head back and forth excitedly. She spun around a few times before coming to sudden stop and pointing at him with a bright smile. "You're a…wait for it….wait for it…. A CYBORG!" she said finally. The male blinked at this and stared at her. "A Cyborg? How can you be so sure?" he asked the girl with the short lilac locks.

"It's all Easy-peasy. Cyborgs are like HALF DUDE and HALF ROBOT. Robots are all blank and stuff all the time and can't feel nothin', but you're different, Cashy! You have a sense of touch and can like cry and feel emotions and 'n stuff! You have to be part human! There can't be any other logical explanation!" she explained to him, feeling rather confident in her explanation.

"Half…human…" he said to himself, looking down at his hand. While he didn't quite completely understand what she had said to him, he had somewhat gotten the gist of it. "Maybe…" he said. She could have been right. He has no recollection of who he was and the certainty of her tone also made him believe it may have been true. Then again, she was always that way….

"Ummm..Cashy? I've been kinda thinkin' and…." The girl slowly began to speak in different way than usual. The unusual tone of the girl's voice caused him to look up, wondering what it was she had to say. "I think…you should go back to your own world." She finished saying. Her saying this made him feel worried as he suddenly blurted out "Are you trying to abandon me?" to the girl.

Her eyes blinked in surprise at his question as she immediately shook her head in denial. "No! I'm not tryin' to abandon you!" she responded, trying to assure him. "Then why do you want me to go back?" he said in an almost rushed way. "'C-Cause, you would have a totally better chance of finding the stuff you wanna know there!" she said to him. Why was he acting so scared? It was almost as if he didn't even want to go back.

"…" the cybernetic man stayed quiet for a moment, his head down as Neptune shimmied her way over and poked him on his cheek. "I would never abandon you, Cashy~ what kinda friend would I be if I did that, huh? If you go back, I'm coming with you!" she told him, one of her usual smiles fixed on her face.

Casshern looked down at the smiling preteen before slowly looking away from her. "I…I don't want you to come…it's dangerous there." He said in a soft voice, closing his eyes as he bawled his hand into a fist. "Pshaw! I can totally defend myself. You don't have to worry about me! I'm totally handicapable and all that!" she assured her friend, patting him on the shoulder playfully.

"You don't understand. People are always coming after me. I don't want to risk you getting hurt somehow because you wanted to travel with me…" he said, trying to change her mind. Neptune shook her head defiantly. "Nothin' you can say or do will keep me away from you! I'm going and that's that! " she declared, folding her arms and looking away with her arms closed to show that nothing would be able to change her mind.

Defeated, the man in white simply sighed and nodded his head. Even though he didn't want her to come along with him, he couldn't help but feel somewhat happy that she was. For some reason, he was always happy when he was around her. It was probably because he enjoyed seeing her be happy all the time which always lifted his spirits even when though he failed to show it most of the time. "Thank you….Neptune…" he finally managed to say before being hugged by the girl with no warning at all. "Don't thank me! I'm just being a good buddy!" she said cheerfully.

The green eyed male placed his hand on the girls head and gently petted her, a small smile appearing on his face for a brief second before he suddenly remembered what he would be going back to. This thought instantly made him spiral back into the same depression from the other day which of course captured the young girl's attention.

"Cashy…what's wrong?" She asked him, her smile now gone due to her friend's change in demeanor. Casshern did no more than sigh as he looked away from the girl, a flurry of negative thoughts coursing through his mind like a hurricane. Neptune, unsure of what to do sighed as well and released him from her grasp. "You need a place to think by yourself?" she asked.

He nodded his head. Time alone was probably exactly what he needed. He needed time to think things over in his head that he had tried to suppress his entire stay and to organize his feelings about certain things. Neptune gave him a small nod back and grabbed his hand, walking out of the bedroom and to the Basilicom observatory which offered a magnificent view of the city. "You can do all your thinking here! I'm going out to go get stuff, so stay put until I come back. Kay?" she said, getting a simple head nod in response.

Neptune quickly ran off and exited out the Basilicom to start her run to get supplies before sunset. The first place she headed was a store for medical supplies. Upon entering she could hear the voice of a familiar ditzy nurse. "I wonder if I got all the booboo treating supplies I need for the month." She heard the voice say, peering her head around the corner only to see one of her best friends in the world. "Compa?" she said, looking at the girl purchasing her supplies at the counter.

The teenage girl known as Compa, turned around at the sound of the familiar sounding voice, immediately seeing Neptune and growing sparkly eyed. "Nep-Nep!" she squealed, running over to the goddess and hugging her tightly while burying the poor girls face in her melons.

"Com…pa…..can't…breathe…..losing…oxygen…." Neptune struggled to say, her words mainly being muffled due to where her head was located. "I missed you too, Nep-Nep!" said the young nurse, unaware of the fact that she was suffocating her friend. "Dying…" was all Neptune said before suddenly going limp. "Nep-Nep?" the nurse said, pulling away as she held Neptune by the shoulders.

The young goddess was completely motionless causing the ditzy nurse to panic and begin slapping away at Neptune's face. "WAKE UP! NEP-NEP! YOU CANNOT DIE ON ME!" She yelled, smacking her face from side to side in the hopes that she would wake up. At that same moment, a girl with long brown hair walked in on her cell phone, her facial expression seemed rather impatient as she approached the two, not yet noticing Neptune. "You've been in here for a long time. Compa, are you….." the new girl took notice of Neptune being smacked around like a rag doll by Compa. "What the hell are you doing to Nep?!" she exclaimed, with a look of shock.

"Nep-Nep passed out from my hug and now I'm trying to wake her up!" The ditzy nurse explained, now shaking little Neptune's body ever so violently as tears began to develop in her eyes. "And you thought HITTING her would help?! What kind of nurse BEATS people as a remedy?!" she yelled, grabbing the still limp body of the goddess away from Compa.

At this point, Compa busted out into tears and fell to her knees. "I killed Nep-Nep! WAAHHH! I'm so sorry Iffy! What is Ge-Ge gonna do when she finds out I murdered her sister!?" She cried as the brown-haired girl known as IF simply shook her head, an anime sweat drop appearing on the side. "Nep's not dead. Stop crying like a baby." IF said as her attention turned to still unconscious Neptune. "Looks like Nep's all passed out. Too bad, I had this pudding cup to gi-" Neptune's eyes shot open mid-sentence as she looked around the store frantically. "Pudding?! Where?! Where?!" she exclaimed with excitement.

When it came to this form of Neptune, food was the solution to everything and IF knew this fact all to well. Compa suddenly tackled Neptune to the ground, still crying her eyes out and she started to hug her once more. "ACK!" Neptune yelped in surprised. "I thought you had died, Nep-Nep!" Compa said, snuggling her friend as IF facepalmed at their silly behavior.

"I told you she was fine. Anyway, what are you doing here, Nep? It's unusual to see you in a place like this. Normally you would be going around goofing off somewhere or sleeping." IF said, folding her arms as Neptune patted Compa on the back. "Well, I made a new friend recently who's an amnesiac. I promised to help them out so I was out buyin' supplies for the adventure 'n stuff!" she explained as Compa continued to be…Compa.

"A friend, huh? How long have you known them?" IF asked, knowing Neptune all to well to know she was her far too trusting of random people a lot of the time. "Um..'bout three days and some change." She said, nonchalantly. "So you're leaving with someone you've only known for three days? Neptune, listen to you. This person is practically a complete stranger and you're going to journey with them?" IF said, knowing this was going to end up being the case.

Compa sniffled a bit and looked over at the girl she was still clinging onto. "Nep-Nep's leaving? Why Nep-Nep?! Take us with you!" the ditz begged her friend. Neptune, IF, and Compa had always been close friends and did almost everything together, so the fact that Compa wished to come along was of no surprise.

"My friend is a really good person and kinda emo. They need hugs and support 'n stuff. Trust me! I know everything will be fine! And as much as I would like for you two to come with me I have to say no. If we ALL leave then Nep jr. will be all by herself and she needs you guys here to support her if she needs it. I don't know how long I'm gonna be gone… I need to have someone here that I can trust to watch over the little tatter tot while I'm away." Neptune said, looking at both of them with an unusually serious expression on her face to show just how strongly she felt about the situation.

IF was silent for a moment and then sighed. She knew that look. It would be impossible to change Neptune's mind at this point so why even bother trying? The girl with the brown hair nodded her head in understanding. "Fine, Fine, okay. I get it. I trust your judgment just this once. Don't be gone too long, you hear? You'll end up having Gear, us, and everyone else worried about you. Don't worry. We'll take care of Gear and Planeptune while you're away." IF said, as a small smile appeared on her face.

Compa looked down; her expression filled with sadness but also with understanding as she pulled away from the girl finally and wiped her eyes. "I…I understand Nep-Nep. Please just…be careful. I'm not going to try to stop you but at least promise to try and keep in contact with everyone while you're away. Keep all foreign objects out of your mouth, bathe daily, eat a good bre-" Neptune started to flail her arms slightly. "Okay! I get it! I will totally do all of that! Don't worry!" she assured the young nurse, standing up and dusting her dress off.

"Promise me you will!" Compa demanded in her non-threatening high-pitched voice. Neptune smiled nervously waving her hands in front of her. "I PROMISE!" She said to assure her friend. Compa smiled brightly. "Good. Since we aren't coming with you this time, let us at least help you pick out everything you'll need!" Compa offered. Neptune nodded her head immediately at this offering. "Yes! That would be awesome!"

Roughly three hours had passed and Neptune had finally finished getting everything together in her N-Gear for the big trip ahead of her. She waved goodbye to her two close friends and quickly set off for the Basilicom to check up on Casshern.

Night had already reached the city as Casshern came to the realization that Neptune had been gone for a very long time. "How long has it been? She still isn't back…." He said to himself, looking down at the brightly lit city. "Maybe…she abandoned me…." He thought, starting to truly think that was the reason she hadn't returned yet. This thought led to his helmet and mask appearing over his face and jumping off of the Basilicom observatory and to the ground.

Neptune had finally made her way back to the outside of the Basilicom, humming a happy tune as she made her way to the door. Her peripheral vision caught a small glimpse of Casshern jumping to the ground. "Cashy?" she said as she watched him jump over towards a nearby building immediately after.

"Cashy?! Where are you going?!" she yelled after him but much to her disappointment he hadn't heard single word and continued to move further and further away. Knowing she would lose him if she didn't act quickly, Neptune activated HDD and entered her goddess form. Her back processor, which was a pair of wings, appeared and she quickly took off after him as fast as she possible could.

Casshern continued to jump from building to building, having no idea about where he was headed as he flipped his body around ever so gracefully, catching the attention of the people in the city. Neptune had finally caught sight of him and flew right in front of the cyborg during the middle of one his flips. "Casshern!" she yelled.

The suddenness of her appearance had completely caught the cybernetic being off guard and so he crashed into her. The cyborg and the patron goddess spiraled down towards the city and violently hit the ground, Neptune on top of him once more except this time passed out.

Her back processor had disappeared a she laid on top of him motionless. A small crowd formed around the two as Casshern slowly opened his eyes and noticed the purple haired woman passed out on him. "N-Neptune?!" He said, wasting no time in removing his helmet and mask, holding her up in his arms. "Neptune…are you okay?" his voice was filled complete concern as he examined the woman's face, trying to find any signs of her coming to.

The goddess with the purple hair slowly opened her eyes, revealing her electric blue irises once more. She slowly turned her head in his direction, looking up at the now relieved but still upset cyborg. "Casshern…." She said softly, placing her hand on his cheek as she stared into his eyes. "Why were you running?" she asked.

Casshern turned his head away and looked down. "I...thought you left me…" he quietly admitted which only made the woman sigh heavily. "I thought I had made it clear that I was never going to abandon you." She stated, trying to move but finding it slightly painful to do so. "N-Ngh… that fall actually did a fair number on me." Casshern looked over ay her from the corner of his eye before closing his eyes all together, feeling guilty. "You're in pain and it's my entire fault. This is why I…" Neptune cut him off before he could finish, already knowing what he intended to say next. "Don't want me to come with you?" she finished for him.

Casshern simply nodded his head which led to Neptune giving him a warm smile. "Well, I'm still coming along regardless." She said, closing her eyes with the smile still on her face. This caused Casshern to look at her with a serious yet curious expression. "You barely know who I am….yet you refuse you leave my side….why is that?" he asked. "Because…" she started to say, opening her eyes back up and staring into his pure green irises with her own blue ones. "I want to help you. I made a vow to myself to help you at any means necessary…and I'm not going back on it."

The green-eyed male's face softened as he stared at the goddess in his arms for a long time, unsure of what to say in response. "Neptune…" was all he could manage to say before suddenly bringing her into a gentle embrace, closing his eyes. "Thank you…for everything." He whispered. The patron goddess slowly closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around him as well to return his hug. "There is no need to thank me….Casshern…." she said back to him, smiling happily.

The crowd of people all started to clap their hands. "This is so sweet! It's just like those movies!" A girl said, crying a bit as another girl joined in saying "I want the affection they share! I'm so jealous." An old man nodded his head at the scene. "Young love….." he said. The crowd continued to clap, whistle and talk which immediately led to Neptune opening her eyes and looking at the crowed that she had completely forgotten was even there.

"Casshern…." She said softly. "Yes, Neptune?" the male asked as he pulled away to look at her. "Let's head back before this gets even stranger…" she said watching people take pictures with their phones. Casshern nodded and picked her up bridal style, jumping up to a nearby building and making his way back to the Basilicom the same way he came.

The crowd of people watched in awe as the man in white and woman in black disappeared from view as Neptune shook her head at them. "People these days…" was her one and only comment.


	6. Chapter 5: The Start of The Journey

Morning had yet to reach the capital city of Planeptune and yet the excitable goddess with the lilac hair and her brunette cyborg friend were silently sneaking out of the Basilicom. "Man, I'm so lucky I went to bed early. It's like 5AM." The girl whispered as the swiftly made their way to exit of the building undetected.

Casshern followed behind her, being very quiet. "Why are we sneaking out of your own home?" he asked, still not understanding the situation completely as they swiftly made their way out without any problems. Neptune scratched her cheek using her left index finger and sighed. "'cause if Histy knew I was leavin' without her permission, she would force me to stay and make me work." She explained, walking towards the sidewalk.

"I see…" the cybernetic male said as he followed behind her, looking around and seeing the number of people who were usually on the streets during the day had significantly decreased over the last few hours. "Where is everyone?" he said to himself which Neptune heard, turning around and walking backwards. "Mostly everyone is asleep or just waking up to get ready for work or school or whatever." She answered, smiling cheerfully as she turned back around.

"I suppose that makes sense…" He said. It wasn't long until they had reached the building where the scientists had worked on the transporter that had sent Neptune to Casshern's world in the first place. "Where are we?" the brunette asked, looking at the new building before him. "This is where the thingy is that sent me to your world." She explained, placing her eye near the retina scan which caused the door to open. "Tada!" she said before waltzing into the empty building,

The male followed behind her, looking around at facility as he became fascinated with the various amount of technology everywhere. He shook his head, staring straight ahead so he didn't run the risk of losing sight of Neptune a second time like at the concert.

Eventually, the two reached the exact room that Neptune had found the transporter in. The violet eyed girl tiptoed in and looked around to make sure it was safe before signaling Casshern to follow her. Casshern did exactly as he was told to do as Neptune made her way over to the transporter only to be taken off guard by a familiar voice. "Lady Purple Heart." the voice said, causing both Neptune and Casshern to look over at the source.

In the southern corner of the room stood a girl no older than six with short brown hair, a bunny hat, and large white gloves. "Lady Purple Heart, I come with gift for journey." She said, shuffling her way over to the two of them. "Woah! How'd you get in here, Gust?" exclaimed the lilac haired girl, large animated question marks forming over her head.

"No time for irrelevant things. Gust come to bring gift for journey." The child said again, reaching into the pockets on her apron and pulling out a small capsule and handing it to her. Neptune gladly accepted the unusual gift and stared at it. "What is it? Neptune?" Casshern asked her, also looking at the strange capsule. "I dunno. What didja juts give me?" Neptune asked her young friend.

"It Gust's latest invention. Portable Housing Capsule Unit or PHCU for short. I give you prototype." She explained, smiling brightly. "Daaawww that's so thoughtful of you!" said Neptune, smiling super happily as well. "So how does this thingy work?" She asked.

"Throw capsule onto ground to make house appear. Deactivation button is placed on upper right hand corner of house." Gust explained with her usual broken English that was still cute in a way. Neptune nodded her head, taking in the new information and committing it to memory as she placed the capsule in her N-Gear's inventory.

"I wish you best of luck on adventure, Lady Purple Heart and strange man." Gust said as Casshern stared at the girl. Strange man? Was she referring to him? He could only assume she was since he was the only male in the room. "Ah…thank you…" he said, nodding his head as well. "Bye-Bye, Gust! Thanks for the thingy! I'll be sure to tell you how it works for me!" the goddess told her friend happily, waving at her as she stepped inside the transporter with Casshern following in behind her. She still wondered how she got in there but decided not to question it further.

Neptune initiated the transportation sequence the same as she did the first and took a deep breath. "Here we go, Cashy…"she said. Casshern closed his eyes, waiting for them to return back to the ruin planet. "Yes…." Was all he said as Gust waved them off before they suddenly vanished in a bright light.

Moments later they found themselves back in the area they had been in when they first met. Neptune looked around and clapped her hands together. "It totally worked! We're back!" she cheered jumping up in the air. "…" Casshern was silent as his eyes scanned around the desolated area around him, the guilt which he had suppressed quickly coming back.

Neptune noticed his face growing more and more melancholic leading to her quickly grabbing his hands and rocking them back and forth. "No, no, no, no, noooo! Don't start gettin' sad on me now! THINK ABOUT UNICORNS AND RAINBOWS!" She urged him nonsensically, trying to cheer him up before his depression got worse. "…." Casshern remained silent, staring down at the sand with his bangs over his eyes.

Neptune couldn't help but feel like Casshern only understood her when she had HDD Activated. If it was necessary she would transform herself for the sake of being able to support him better. The girl sighed and threw her hands in the air, slightly frustrated as she activated HDD [Hard Drive Divinity], surrounding her body in a white pillar of light. The light quickly vanished, revealing her cool, mature, and developed goddess form.

"Casshern…" she said soothingly, placing both oh her hands on his cheeks and lifting his head so that he would make eye contact with her. "I understand that you are in pain… but please listen to what I have to say…You mustn't allow these negative emotions to eat away at you. If you continue on this way, you'll never find what you're looking for. I'm not asking you to change overnight, but I at least want you to try to be a bit more optimistic about things. You were alone before… carrying these burdens alone. Now I'm here and I will willingly take some of the load off of your shoulders. We're officially a party now and that means that you and I share the same fate and same problems. No matter what happens from here on out, you are NOT alone. I will do everything in my power to help you through this, but you also need to help yourself….Casshern…" her tone was warm and sincere as she stared deeply into his eyes, her expression serious yet caring.

Casshern closed stared back into her eyes in silence for a moment before responding. "I…understand…" he said quietly, placing his hand over one of hers and closing his eyes with a softening expression appearing on his face. Neptune gently caressed his cheek, smiling in an almost loving way before she slowly pulled her hand away, highly pleased with her work. "Let's go now~" she said, turning her back to him and walking off towards the north, pulling her N-Gear out.

She opened the map up on the screen and began to watch the area around her be mapped out as she walked. "Where were you headed before we met?" she asked, looking over her shoulder at him. "No where in particular… I normally just walk around until I find somewhere or someone." He answered, walking up beside her and taking the lead. "Then I suppose we…" before she could finish her sentence she found herself being knocked to the side like a ragdoll and flying 30 feet away from her first position.

"Neptune?!" the cybernetic man called out to her as he noticed a black robot coming right at him after hitting Neptune. "CAAAAAASSSSHEEEEERN!" The robot screamed as he swung his metal claw at him. Casshern's mask and helmet appeared as he jumped up into the air and flipped forward, bringing his foot down towards the metal being with phenomenal force, tearing through it effortlessly before landing on his feet and punching it repeatedly until it was nothing but scrap..

Neptune slowly lifted up from the ground, rubbing the back of her head before looking ahead and seeing Casshern destroying the enemy who had hit her. "That was unexpected…" she said as Casshern rushed over to her and kneeled down. "Neptune! Are you okay?!" he said, looking her over to make sure she wasn't injured.

"Casshern, I'm fine." She assured the brunette as she stood up and dusted herself off and smiled. "Thank goodness…" said the brunette as he stood as well, feeling relieved that she was okay. He would never be able to forgive himself if anything happened to her. The purple haired CPU [Console Patron Unit] turned her attention to the annihilated machine and blinked. "You handled that within a matter of seconds...you're really powerful…" she complimented, placing her finger on her cheek.

"My power caused the ruin…" he said, his face now serious as he walked passed her. Neptune watched him walk ahead and sighed softly; following behind him as she made sure her no damage was done to her N-Gear. "I don't see why you brought that with you… it'll just fall victim to the ruin anyway…" Casshern said, looking back at her slightly before turning his head back forward. His demeanor had changed completely. At first he was sad but now he was serious all of a sudden. Neptune started to question which version of him she preferred the most at the moment.

"Stop being so negative. Nothing is going to happen to my N-Gear. If anything does then I'll be in huge trouble." She responded, going back to looking at the map. It wasn't long until the cyborg and the CPU had reached a path through the mountains. "A mountain path, huh…" she whispered to herself, looking around for any enemies.

"Stay close to close to me." The cyborg said to the CPU, maintaining the same level of seriousness. Neptune nodded her head and walked closely beside him as they proceeded further ahead. Silence filled the path as a gust of cold wind blew, making her shiver a bit. "You okay?" he asked, looking over at her for confirmation. "Yes, just a bit chilly. It's nothing serious." She assured him along with a nod.

Casshern nodded his head and they continued to make their way through. It seemed as though the path they were taking was fairly safe for they had yet to come into contact with any hostile forces. They walked for what seemed to be hours and Neptune couldn't help but to feel slightly fatigued due to the constant and uneventful walking. "Casshern, how much longer do you think we have until we make it off this path?" she asked, now walking behind him due to slowing down.

"I'm not sure…" he answered before stopping and looking back at her, noticing her exhausted condition. "Should we stop?" he asked, concerned for her wellbeing. Unlike her, he did not have to worry about things such as fatigue but he understood that while she was a goddess, she also had human traits. Casshern wouldn't force her to keep moving forward if he knew she wouldn't be able to handle it.

"No.. I can keep moving. Please, don't mind me." She said, smiling at him to add to the assurance of her being just fine. Reluctant at first, Casshern nodded his head and resumed walking forward. The tiresome walking continued for several more minutes until they both heard something break nearby.

Alert and ready to fight, Casshern's face mask and helmet appeared immediately. Neptune stood there quietly, waiting for anything to happen at any given moment. Without any form of warning, several large robots jumped down from above and landed on both sides of the path to close them in. "CAAAAASHE-" Neptune's samurai sword appear and in one swing she sliced the machine in two. Her processors appeared immediately after as she dashed after the others on her side, disappearing as she slashed in an X-formation and then reappearing behind them. The robots instantly fell apart after this attack and Neptune assumed a normal standing position. She placed her sword over her shoulder and looked at Casshern, seeing the other few of the group coming after him.

"Casshern, behind you." She said in a calm collected voice. Casshern jumped into the air over the robots with a back flip and quickly descended back down with a powerful punch which of course destroyed one of the robots completely upon impact. One of the machines attempted to land a blow on the cyborg from the side only to be greeted with a violent roundhouse kick to the face, completely ripping its head off which was followed by several relentless punches to the body to make sure it was destroyed.

The single robot that was left began to cower in fear and then began to run for its life, knowing good and well what would happen if he stayed. Casshern, of course, did not allow him to flee. The cyborg jumped in front of the machine and gave him a simple punch while standing normally. The robot was still for but a moment as if nothing had happened. Suddenly, the robot exploded all at once.

Neptune smirked, her sword and processors vanishing as she made her way over to the brunette. "I suppose powerful was an understatement…." She said almost playfully, folding her arms and looking at the new scrap heap they had formed. "I had no idea you could fight so well…" he stated, retracting his mask and helmet.

The purple haired woman placed her hands on her hips and looked away nonchalantly. "That was child's play. Wait until we get into a serious fight so I can show you my true fighting ability." Her more boastful side was showing now. In goddess form, Neptune could be considered rather overconfident and perhaps even arrogant. However, it was a fact that she always emerged victorious the most of the time so why wouldn't she think that way?

"I actually hope we don't get into any serious fights… I don't want anything happening to you even with your fighting ability." He said, turning his back to her and looking straight ahead. Neptune blinked and walked up closer behind him, holding her hands behind her back. "You worry too much, I'll be fine." She said, smiling as she took her place beside him and grabbed his hand. "Let's keep going, shall we?"

Casshern stared at the woman next to him and smiled softly, nodding and walking forward. Seeing his smile instantly made her happy on the inside, feeling as though she had accomplished something. Whenever he smiled she couldn't help but smile too. Maybe it was because it was rare to see him actually happy.

By mid-afternoon, the two of them had finally made it to another desolated wasteland filled with sand. Neptune was fast asleep on Casshern's back, her arms somewhat swinging from side to side over his shoulders. Her eyes slowly opened up, unbeknownst to Casshern as she slowly lifted up and looked down at him.

The cybernetic male looked back at her upon feeling her movement on his back. "So you're finally awake." he said, still walking forward. "How long was I asleep?" she asked, rubbing her eyes with a soft yawn. "Just a few hours." He answered. Neptune blinked her eyes a few times and tilted her head. "I'm sorry for having you carry me for so long. Please place me down." She requested, placing both of her hands on his shoulders as she supporter her by the thighs. "Are you sure?" he asked, not wanting to place her down if she wasn't completely capable of walking just yet.

"I'm sure." She assured the brunette with a small smile. Casshern placed her down as she had requested, being as careful as possible as her feet made contact with the ground once more. Neptune swayed slightly, nearly toppling over. The man in white quickly caught her, wrapping his arms around her waist to keep her supported.

"Neptune, are you sure you're okay? We've been traveling for a long time. Perhaps we should take a break." The cyborg suggested to the blue-eyed CPU. Neptune was silent for a moment before nodding her head in agreement and removing the PHCU from her N-Gear's inventory.

She remembered the exact process told to her by Gust and simply tossed it to the ground a few feet away from them. A huge cloud of smoke shot up from the capsule and completely enshrouded the area around them. Once it had faded away a medium-sized house was all that could be seen in front of them.

"Wow…it really works." She said to herself, amazed at how a six-year-old alchemist could invent something so impressive and practically impossible. It was moments like these that made her happy that she lived in such a diverse world of people. "Let's go~" she said to the green-eyed male, looking up at him and smiling.

"Yes, of course." Said the man in the white suit, picking up the woman in black bridal style before walking into the house. Upon walking inside he immediately found his way to the living room and placed her down on the couch. "Is this an acceptable place for you to rest?" he asked, not wanting her somewhere that she deemed uncomfortable.

"Yes, thank you." She responded, turning on her side so that she could still face him. "You should get some rest... I'll wait for you to wake up." He spoke in calm and somewhat nurturing voice as he looked down at her with a faint smile.

"Right….see you when I wake up…" she spoke in soft voice and slowly closed her eyes, curling up a bit and falling asleep almost instantly. "Neptune…" Casshern said to himself, still smiling as he spent the rest of the time watching the purple haired beauty sleep ever so peacefully.


	7. Chapter 6: The CPU Candidate's Return

"Histoire, Neptune, I'm back!" A young teenage girl said as she entered the Basilicom. She had long purple hair and violet eyes with one D-pad hairclip on the left side of her hair. In terms of appearance she looked almost like an older version of human form Neptune, however they were very different.

The fairy-like tome made her way over to the girl with haste, her facial expression filled with slight panic and worry. "Nepgear, have you seen Neptune?" she asked quickly, hoping to receive a positive response. The girl named Nepgear blinked a few times and shook her head. "No, I haven't seen her at all. I just got back. Is something wrong?" she asked out of curiosity.

"So you don't know either?" Histoire sighed and rubbed her forehead before starting to speak once more. "Neptune has been missing since early yesterday morning and I have been unable to find her anywhere." The fairy explained. Nepgear instantly became worried upon hearing this news and started panic. "Yesterday morning?! We have to find her!" She exclaimed, not waiting for a response as she turned back around and ran out of the Basilicom in search of her older sister. "Neptune! Neptune where are you?!" she yelled, running through the city aimlessly without any idea on where to start looking.

"Maybe she's at the usual spot? A Bakery? The park? A buffet? There are so many places to choose from!" she said to herself, beginning to panic even more at not even knowing where to look. She had just gotten back from Lastation from visiting Uni and came home only to find out her sister had been missing for a good day. Where in Gamindustri could her sister be? Did she get into trouble somewhere? Had she gotten lost? The possibilities were endless!

Nepgear made her way around the many shops in Planeptune that she came across, asking every and anyone if they had seen Neptune. Many of the shop owners had confessed to seeing her the day before she went missing. Neptune had apparently purchased and large number of supplies from several stores. They also said that two other girls were with her. They had reported seeing a girl with long brown hair and green leaf-like bow in her hair who was on her phone the entire time and a big breasted, ditzy, cheerful girl with pinkish-orange hair. Those descriptions could only match two people. It had to be IF and Compa.

If IF and Compa were with her sister the day before she went missing and were also helping her shop around for supplies then they had to know something about what happened to her. Why was she even buying supplies in the first place? Was she headed somewhere? If she really was headed somewhere then why didn't she tell her only little sister? A Barrage of questions cycled through the CPU Candidate's mind as her search went from finding Neptune to finding IF and Compa. At this point, those two were her only hope to finding out about what happened to her sister and she had to find them.

Since IF was a member of the guild, Nepgear immediately headed there first. The young goddess walked into the Guild building with haste and looked around for the brown-haired cell phone lover. When her own visual search failed, she began to walk around and ask people if they had seen her. Much to her dismay, no one had seen IF anywhere.

This didn't crush her resolve. Just because she couldn't find IF didn't mean she couldn't find Compa. Compa worked as a nurse at a nearby clinic. Nepgear decided to head there for her next attempt at finding someone. Upon reaching the clinic she entered inside and saw a large group of people. Since the clinic was so busy today Compa had to be there, right? Nepgear approached the woman behind the desk and began to speak. "Excuse me miss. I'm sorry to-" before she could even finish her sentence a man behind her groaned with impatience. "Ugh! Hurry it up! People need more important things than whatever you have to say." He interrupted rather rudely. Nepgear took a deep breath and started to speak again. "I'm sorry to bother you, but-" she was rudely cut off once more by the same person behind her. "UGH! YOU KIDS ARE SO SLOW! HURRY UP DAMN IT!" he yelled at the girl.

Nepgear didn't know how to respond to his rudeness and so simply began to ignore him to the best of her capabilities. "Is Compa working today?" she asked the woman. The woman nodded her head which of course lifted the young girl's spirits. "Yes, she is. However, she is very busy at the current moment with swarm of patients. If you are trying to speak with her then I am afraid you will have to wait until she's on break." The woman explained.

Nepgear nodded her head in understanding and smiled. "Alright then. Thank you for you-" she was cut off yet again by the same man yelling in the background. "UGH!" Nepgear shook her head and proceeded to finish her sentence. "For your time." She finished, walking over to the closest seat in the waiting room and patiently waited for her friend Compa to come out.

Several hours had passed and Nepgear had fallen asleep in the chair. She felt someone shaking her gently as a familiar voice spoke to her. "Ge-Ge~ Ge-Ge, wake up." The voice said to the girl. Nepgear's eyes quickly shot open once she realized who it was. "Compa! " she said quickly, looking over at the source of the voice and seeing that it was indeed the Compa she had waited for.

"What brings you here, Ge-Ge? Do you need me to treat your booboos?" Compa asked, smiling her usual cheerful smile. Nepgear shook her head quickly as she arose from her seat and began to stand. "No. Compa, I need to ask you something very important." The girl with the long purple locks said. Compa tilted her head, placing her right index finger on her lips. "Ask me what?" she questioned, her expression filled with curiosity.

"I need you to tell me where Neptune is. She's been missing since yesterday. I asked around and you and IF were the only ones who were with her before she went missing. Please, Compa. If you know anything, then tell me!" Nepgear's tone was urgent and filled with anxiety as her serious gaze fixated itself on the nurse.

Compa sighed, somehow knowing that was what Nepgear wanted all along. "Ge-Ge, Nep-Nep has gone off on adventure to help a friend. She said she doesn't know when she'll be back." The nurse began to explain. Nepgear was confused. An adventure? With who? Why would she leave and not even tell her about it? "We tried to come with her but she said she wanted us to stay here and look after you while she was away." The nurse continued. Nepgear's eye slowly began to water as her gaze shifted down. "…And didn't even bother to say a word to me… " she whispered.

"Ge-Ge?!" Compa said, quickly placing her hands on the girl's shoulder. "Don't cry, Ge-Ge!" she urged her, not liking the sight of one of her best friends crying. Nepgear shook her head. "No! My own sister went off somewhere and didn't even bother trying to tell me! How can you expect me to be okay?!" she nearly yelled, pulling away from Compa and turning her back to her. "I have to go." Were her last words before taking off out the clinic. "Ge-Ge!" Compa called out, trying to chase after her but to no avail. Nepgear was already gone by the time she had reached outside. "Ge-Ge… it's not what you think it is… I'm sure of it." She said to herself, sighing yet again.

Nepgear had made her back into the Basilicom with a rather angry yet sad aura around her. Histoire made her way over to the girl and began to speak. "Did you find out anything Nepgear? Why do you look so displeased?" she asked, examining the girl's facial expression. "Yeah, she's out on some adventure with some friend…..and didn't even bother to tell me." She said with her voice almost filled with resentment as she walked past the oracle after finishing her statement.

Upon reaching her room, Nepgear sat down at her desk that was placed right beside Neptune's and sat in silence. Shortly after, she began to break down into tears due to being in the safety of her own room. How could Neptune suddenly leave like that and not tell her? Such actions almost made her believe that Neptune didn't even care about her. No… what was she saying? She knew Neptune loved her. Maybe she just forgot? Yeah, that was it! She was so focused on leaving that she forgot to tell her! That had to be it!

She started to feel better after making up a pile of excuses as to why her beloved older sister had left without so much as a word to her about it. This slight joy only lasted for a moment however. She quickly began to spiral back into the depression she had almost successfully escaped from. "Or…maybe she really didn't care…" she said softly to herself as she removed her N-Gear from her pocket and turned it on.

The screen displayed that she had one new video message. "A message?" she said, opening up the video and allowing it to play on her screen. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw it was Neptune who was on the video. "Hi-lo, Nep jr.! It's your big sis, Neptune, here! I know your like in Lastation 'n stuff with your buddy so I decided to send this video message thingy to ya. I just wanted to let you know that I'm gonna be travelin' with a buddy of mine to help him get his memory back. There was absolutely noooo way I could leave without tellin' my awesomesauce sister where I was goin'. I hope Histy isn't too upset with me. Hehe~ Anyway, I'm leaving Planeptune in your care until I get back. I totally believe in you little sis so don't let me down, okay? I'll be back ASAP. Looove you~ Bye-Bye!" Neptune said with her usual energetic and cheerful demeanor before the video ended.

Nepgear stared at the screen for a long time. A small smile appeared on her face as tears continued to fall from her violet eyes. Happiness began to consume her body and she slowly started to laugh. Neptune didn't leave without telling her. She had kept her in mind the entire time and here was accusing her own sister of not caring about her. Nepgear placed her N-Gear on the desk and walked over to her sister's bed, plopping down as she grabbed the bunny plush toy.

"I love you too, Neptune. Please come back soon." She said quietly to herself, hugging the bunny as she curled up while continuing to smile. Words couldn't describe the amount of relief she had felt at this very moment. She was going to do her best to care for Planeptune and make her sister proud, no matter what. With that mind, Nepgear closed her eyes and slowly drifted asleep with a new resolution to herself in mind.


	8. Chapter 7: The New Promise

"This town is totally empty. Helloooooo! Anybody Here?!" Neptune yelled as she ran ahead of Casshern in the abandoned town. They had only recently found some form civilization but from the looks of it, no one was there. "hm… guess no one is here. What a let down." The child said, sighing as she hung her head slightly.

"We'll just have to keep moving on until we find someone…" Casshern said calmly as he walked up beside her. Neptune looked up at him and smiled, nodding her head in agreement. "Yeah! Let's go!" she said with her usual cheerful demeanor. The cyborg and the CPU began to make their way through the town and towards the exit.

As the two made their way through without any issues they heard a loud scream which made them stop dead in their tracks and look back. "Didja hear that?" the lilac haired girl asked the brown-haired man. Casshern nodded his head and looked down at the girl. "Let's check it out." He suggested.

Neptune nodded her head and so the two began to make their way to the northeastern part of the town where the scream came from. So someone really was here, but why were they screaming? It was too soon to say at the moment but they would most certainly found out the reason.

It wasn't long until they had reached the source of the sound and saw a group of robots and humans being terrorized by larger robots. "It's always robots…" Neptune said to herself with her hand over her face. Casshern's face mask and battle helmet had appeared upon seeing this, readying himself to fight if needed.

Almost immediately, everyone had locked on to Casshern. "It's Casshern!" one of the robots said, completely turning his attention over to the man in the white suit. "Casshern..? The one who caused the ruin? Why is he here…?" someone said, as the entire group looked at him in both shock and terror.

"Wow, you're really popular, Cashy~ everyone knows who you are!" the violet eyed girl said, placing both of her hands on her hips and smiling. "We must devour Casshern!" one of the hostile robots yelled, making their way over to the party of two. Casshern's eyes flashed bright green for just a moment before he jumped into the air drop kicked the first one that approached them. As usual, the robot was destroyed instantly by the attack and dismantled easily.

"Devour? But you're like robots 'n stuff. Robots don't eat. You guys are some dumb robots." Neptune commented as one of the robots attempted to attack her head on only to have its entire body obliterated by a simple spiral kick to the head and several punches to the body by Casshern. Neptune smiled cheerfully and waved her hand at the brunette. "Thank you, Cashy~!" she exclaimed before turning her attention over to the group of cowering people and skipping over to them in the midst of the combat.

"Hello, people! We have come to save you 'n stuff!" She assured the group. They were all silent as they simply stared at the girl, examining her appearance. "She looks so perfect…as if she is unaffected by the ruin…"a man said in reference to the CPU in front of him. "Huh? What's that mean?" she asked, only to be ignored by them speaking among themselves.

"She must be immortal like Casshern. If we devour her, we can get eternal life." They said among themselves but still loud enough for hear. Neptune's eyes went wide after hearing this and started back away. "WOAH! YOU'RE GONNA TRY TO EAT ME?!" she said in shock.

The people immediately looked over her way. "We can take her. It's just a little girl." One of the men said as the group began to make their way over to her with a look of desperation in their eyes. Is this what the ruin did to people? This world was clearly on its last legs as it seemed like people would do anything to survive. Neptune was actually starting to understand why Casshern felt the way he did about this place.

Casshern had quickly finished destroying the group of robots that had attempted to 'devour' him and turned his attention towards the group of people making their way over to Neptune with hungry eyes. "Neptune!" he called out, jumping up into the air and landing directly between her and the crowd. "These people are loony-toons! They wanna eat me!" Neptune exclaimed, running behind Casshern and pointing at the group from behind him.

The group of people stopped the moment they saw Casshern and began to back away. They knew they were no match and weren't even going to attempt to try to fight him. "This is your entire fault…." one of the women said, holding her child close to her. "If you had never killed Luna then the ruin would have never happened!"

Another said.

The cybernetic male closed his eyes, knowing that nothing he could say to them would make them feel any differently. He slowly tuned around and began to walk away from the group in silence. Neptune blinked and shook her head at what she had just seen and heard. "You're all ignorant!" she yelled, making Casshern stop and look back at the girl.

"Neptune…?" Casshern whispered quietly as he stared at her slight shock. "You wanna sit here and blame this guy that you know nothing about for ruining your planet. Were you there when he killed this Luna chick? Can you tell me exactly what happened that day? No? Then how can you be so sure that it's entirely his fault! He has no idea who he is! All he knows is what people tell him! The same goes for you! All you have to go by are a bunch of rumors! You have no right to accuse Cashy of anything if you don't know the full story! You can't treat someone you barely know like a monster just because of what people say! If anything….YOU'RE THE MONSTERS!" she preached to the people, taking a deep breath before turning away from them and walking next to Casshern.

"Let's go, Cashy…" she said quietly, walking ahead of him as the people simply watched her go, clearly at a loss for words. Casshern walked behind her silently, not sure on what to say to her. His helmet and mask retraced themselves as the eventually reached the towns exit. "Neptune, you didn't have to say that..." he finally said, looking down at her with his green eyes.

Neptune looked up at him and shook her head. "You're wrong. I did have to do it…" she started to say as her gaze slowly shifted down. "I don't want you beating yourself up over nothing. Those people and anyone else who says negative things about you are clueless dum-dum moron rejects. I know you're a good person… and you should know that too. I refuse to believe that this is your fault until I have proof…" she said softly, looking back up at him and smiling one of her typical happy and energetic smiles.

A small smile appeared on Casshern's face. No matter what they come into contact with Neptune always treated him exactly the same. Aside from one other person, Neptune was the only person who had ever viewed him as a good person and not a monster. That's why she was so precious to him. She was the most precious memory he had and he hoped he never forgot her.

Casshern and Neptune continued walking along into the desolated unknown. Life seemed like it had completely been erased from every corner of the earth but they knew that somewhere on this ruined planet that life existed somewhere, they just had to find it first. This walking continued for hours until they came into view of train tracks in the sand.

"Oh! Tracks?" Neptune said, her eyes lighting up interest at this new discovery. Casshern looked down as well at what the CPU had just found, examining it closely before speaking. "Do you think if we follow them we'll find somewhere new?" he asked the violet eyed preteen next to him. Neptune placed her left index finger on her cheek, thinking for only a second before nodding her in agreement. "Yes! Let's follow these! I mean, it's not like we have anything else to go by now~!"

"Right…" Casshern said in response as he looked into the distance that train tracks ran along into before walking along the tracks with Neptune skipping beside him. The two of them traveled in silence for a few minutes before Neptune started to speak. She had been wondering something for a long time and decided to finally ask him about it. "Cashy….Who's Luna?" she asked, looking up at the man with a curious face. "Luna…?" said the male in a questioning tone as he looked down at her. "Yeah! Who's Luna? She must be really important since everyone is upset at you for supposedly killing her." She said and then awaited some form of explanation from her male companion.

"I don't know much about her myself… All I know is that she can help bring salvation to those affected by the ruin..." he explained. Neptune blinked a few times before folding her arms and tilting her head in thought. "Implying that she's alive… you think she's alive, Cashy?" she asked him, even more curious now. "I'm not certain, but people I've come across have claimed to have heard she's alive. That's all I have to go by now… I'll just keep searching for Luna and hope that I learn more about myself along the way…" said the male in his usual calm, soft voice as he looked down at the tracks beneath them.

"And what'cha gonna do when you finally find her?" she asked as her last question, walking along the edge of the tracks with her hands behind her back while trying to keep up balance. "I don't know…" he answered quietly, closing his eyes. Neptune smiled cheerfully and hopped in front of him, causing the male to come to a complete halt immediately. "Neptune..?" he said with a somewhat puzzled expression, unsure of why she had just preformed her most recent action. "New plan! I'm gonna help you find this Luna chick and help you get your memories back! Yup! I ain't goin' home until I do just that!" she exclaimed, placing both of her hands on her hips and giggling a bit.

"Neptune, you do-" before the male could even make it halfway through his sentence, Neptune placed her hands over her eyes and began to drown him out by being loud. "LALALAALA CAN'T HEAR YOU! I'M GONNA HELP NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY! LALALALALA! POPTAAAARTS!" She yelled, turning her back to him and running ahead. "a-ah…" Casshern stood there with his hand out as the girl ran away from him.

As usual, any attempts to stray her away from helping him had quickly gone denied and ignored. Perhaps it would be in his best interests to simply let her do whatever she liked for the most part. While he didn't really approve of her being in this place with him, he couldn't lie to himself and say that he wasn't happy she had forced herself to tag along with him. She was right; he didn't have to go walk this road by himself anymore.

In the midst of his thinking, the violet eyed CPU was getting dangerously far away from him which made him start running after her. "Wait, Neptune! Don't go too far!" he called out to her, his arm still extending in her direction as he proceeded to chase down the still yelling and skipping goddess ahead of him. Neptune looked behind her and saw him running, smiling widely at him before speeding up.

"You're gonna have to keep up, Cashy!" she teased; now going from a skip to an all out run along the train tracks until she randomly tripped and started to fall over. "Nepuuuuu!" she yelled, bracing herself for the fall ahead of her. "Neptune!" Casshern cried out as he dashed over to her at a lightning fast speed and caught her by the wrist, stopping her fall entirely.

"…" the girl in the jersey dress was silent for a moment before standing up straight and looking back at the man in white with a blank expression. "Neptune, are you okay?" he asked, kneeling down in front of her and checking for any signs of injury despite her not even falling. He was overly cautious. "Nepu~ I'm totally fine!" she assured him, giving him a thumbs up and one of her bright smiles.

A sigh of relief passed his lips as he returned the CPUs smile. "Good…don't do that again. Okay?" he said in a more authoritative tone than usual, expressing his concern for future occurrences that may or may not happen. Neptune nodded her head in understanding. "Yup! Gotcha! I won't do that again because I nearly busted my head open."

Casshern gently pat her on the head before standing back up and looking down at her. "Now that we have that settled, let's continue." He said to her. The young goddess nodded her head excitedly as she threw her fist into the air. "Yes! Walking this time!" she shouted and began to walk forward with her cybernetic friend.


	9. Chapter 8: The Savior of Ruin

"Where am I….? It's like I've walked for days….Everywhere I look….death and decay lingers…Why is the world like this….?" A male with brown-haired wandered around the desolated plains of the ruined planet. His destination? He had none. His purpose? He didn't know. All he could do was walk along the seemingly endless road of emptiness and desolation that surrounded him on all sides.

He was all alone and knew that he would soon be destined to die soon enough. Being a human, he was unaffected by the ruin. However, the ruin had successfully destroyed most of the life and resources that were required for a human being to live. With that said, it was safe to assume that he would die eventually due to the lack of human necessities but would most likely outlive most of the robots.

The young man had accepted death's inevitability and had no intention of resisting or fighting against it. He would simply continue to wander until death's merciless veil had wrapped itself around him, freeing him from this slowly fading world of misery and sorrow. Though is he was ever presented with the oppurtunity to save his life, someway or somehow; he would take it.

"It's disgusting isn't it…" the sound a feminine voice immediately caught the male's attention, averting his attention to a nearby pillar. At the very top sat what appeared to be a child with light blue hair and deep blue eyes. She wore a hat on her head that was white in the middle while being red and yellow on the sides. She had on a white mini dress with red on the insides of her collar and matching white boots that stopped slightly below the knee.

The young man examined the appearance of the strange girl before him. It was obvious that she was robotic but the fact that she seemed sparkling new instantly made her seem different from any other robot he had come across during his travels. Who exactly was this girl? Was she immortal? Only immortals could live through the ruin unharmed so that was the only explanation. If she was immortal that would be she had received Luna's blessing.

"The world and its inhabitants are slowly ebbing away with every passing second…No matter where you go…. The world is encased an unavoidable cyclone of bereavement. It is truly disgusting… death is so ugly….wouldn't you agree?" said the young robotic girl as she looked down at the human male on the ground. The young man was silent for a moment before simply nodding his head in response to her question. A small smirk played across her lips as she jumped down from the pillar and landed in front of him gracefully.

"I can save you..." she looked up at him with her deep blue irises, keeping the same smirk plastered on her face. She stared deeply into his eyes, almost as if seeing into his soul. The male's gazed poured back into her eyes. Her piercing gaze almost petrified him to an extent. Save him? What could she have possibly meant by save him? What exactly was this strange girl capable of? So many questions raced through his mind, yet he found himself unable to speak.

The girl closed her eyes and turned around, walking a few feet away from him as a light breeze blew her long bangs gracefully in the wind for a short time before eventually subsiding entirely. She looked back at him, this time smiling instead of smirking. "A single drop of blood from my veins….can grant eternal life. Just…one…drop…"

"Who….are you…?" the male finally managed to say, his curiosity growing increasingly as watched the girl before him. A thought passed his mind about who she may be, but the chances of that girl being who he thought she was were extremely low. She was supposed to be dead after all.

"… my only job is to give life…. to offer healing to those who need it…" she answered vaguely. The male folded his arms for a moment, her vagueness making him even more curious than before. "I see… and you can save me? With your blood?" he was highly skeptical of her claims and wasn't quick to believe her just yet.

"Yes…just a single drop…" said the girl as she kneeled down, picking up a broken piece of glass from the ground and examined it closely. "And why should I believe you?" he asked, continuing to watch her movements carefully in case of the event that she tried to pull a fast one on him. The light blue haired child turned around completely to face him, still holding the broken glass piece in her hands. "I can prove it…" she placed the sharpest end of the glass against her index finger and pricked it with just enough force to make it bleed.

This shocked the young man, He had believed her to be robotic based off appearances alone. However, after witnessing her bleed he was starting to second guess himself. Robots were incapable of shedding blood. So, how was she…

"If you drink my blood… you will be given eternal life. Just one tiny drop is all it takes…" she said, walking towards him slowly with her finger extended towards him. "One….drop…." he thought as the girl inched closer and closer to him. Was she serious with her claims? Could she really grant him eternal life that easily? He was uncertain on what to believe at this point. He was going to die one way or the other so even if the girl was lying to him it wouldn't matter. What harm could one little taste do?

The young man slowly kneeled down to be on the same level as the girl as he slowly opened his mouth to show he was ready to have her blood. "Good…" she said, flicking a small amount of her blood into his mouth. Once the blood had reached his tongue he slowly closed his mouth and swallowed it.

Initially, he didn't feel any different. After a few seconds he felt the hunger had felt suddenly vanish into thin air. Any form of fatigue he felt had also disappeared entirely. Was what she had true? Did her blood really grant him immortality? That was impossible…the only one capable of doing that was…

"You are now healed…" the girl turned around once more and slowly began to walk away, not saying a word further. The young man immediately rose up and called out to the girl. "Wait! What is your name?!" he had to be sure who she was. He couldn't let her walk away from him without knowing her identity. It was possible that she could be the one everyone was searching desperately for.

The girl stopped, not turning back as yet another breeze blew past them. "Give me your name… and I shall give you mine." She answered. The male took a deep breath, nodding his head. "I am Tristen." He responded to girl before silently awaiting her name in response. Silence filled the air for a moment before the girl turned her head for a final time and smiled sweetly at the brunette. "Some call me the sun that was named moon….most call me… Luna…."


	10. Chapter 9: The Moon and Neptune

The brightest star had finally fallen asleep and allowed its pure white lunar counterpart to take its place. The planet's light switch had flipped from 'ON' to 'OFF' making the world dark with the only source of illumination coming from the resplendent the ivory celestial orb in the sky and its smaller innumerable friends. Neptune and Casshern had been following the same train tracks for some time and Neptune had finally gotten tired.

"I'm tired, Cashy. Can we get some rest now?" she released a cacophony yawn, walking with her back hunched over and arms dangling in a zombielike way. Casshern came to immediate halt after she said this and nodded his head once. "Yes. You need your rest."He said which made her literally leap for joy. "YAY! Time to bust out the PCHU!"

She swiftly reached her hand into the left pocket of her jersey dress and pulled out her handy-dandy N-Gear. After turning it on, Neptune began searching through her inventory for the capsule. "Where is it…" she murmured to herself as Casshern stood and watched in silence. Unbeknownst to them, they were being watched.

"Maaan… I got so much stuff in here. This is gonna take a little number." She informed him, scanning through her inventory while wearing an annoyed expression. Soon after she said this, the ground beneath them began to shake. "Nepu?" the lavender haired lass blinked and looked down at the ground. "Hm…?" Casshern's face mask and battle helmet appeared in reaction to this sudden phenomenon, standing close to Neptune in case anything happened.

The shaking had eventually ceased, leaving the two of them standing there in reticence for a moment. Without warning mechanical hand shot up from beneath the CPU, taking a hold of her ankle and yanking her through the sand and underneath the ground. "NEPUU!" she cried out, her voice quickly fading out into nothing more than an echo. "Neptune!" The man in white called out, not realizing another hand grabbing him as well and dragging him down under.

"…" Neptune slowly opened her eyes and stared at the rock ceiling above her. The girl quickly lifted up from her laying position began to scan the new area in search of her male companion. "Cashy?" she called out only to get no response. She eventually rose to her feet, dusting her clothes off before rubbing the back of her head. "That fall really hurt…" the goddess sighed and looked around the scene for a second time.

It didn't take her long to realize that she was in an underground cavern. The only questions now were what dragged her into the cavern and above all where Casshern was. Was he still on the surface or was he down here as well but only in a different part. Since there was no possible way of answering these questions she decided to simply walk around and hope to find something or someone.

Elsewhere, Casshern wandered the cavern in search of his purple haired friend, saying her name every now and again in the hopes of having her hear him. Where could she possibly be? Since they were dragged under there together she had to be somewhere; the only challenge was finding her. Whatever forced them into this place must have had a reason for doing so, and considering how most of the beings on this planet were the reason was most likely not a very good one. It was imperative that Casshern find Neptune as soon as possible. While he knew she was capable of defending herself, he couldn't help but feel worried about her.

"Caaaashy!" Neptune yelled as loud as she could, walking around the cavern with no idea of where she was even headed. She had walked around for about an hour and she hadn't found even a trace of what she was searching for. A soft sigh escaped past her lips as she placed both of her hands on her hips and came to a complete halt. "I hope Cashy is okay…" she whispered, leaning her back against the cavern wall and closing her eyes.

A faint clicking noise sounded as if something had be pressed and the wall she had rested on suddenly moved to the side. This resulted in Neptune falling backwards and hitting her head on the ground. "Nepuuuu…." She said, lifting up as she rubbed the back of her head. Neptune slowly turned her head around and saw that she was now in front of a flight steps leading up.

Her eyes lit up at this new discovery and she quickly made her way back to her feet. She wasn't sure where these steps would take her but she was most certainly going to find out. The CPU wasted no time in running over to the stairs and gliding up them swiftly. She hoped that climbing these steps would bring her one step closer to her lost party member.

Meanwhile, Casshern continued to walk around aimlessly like he had been for the past hour. "I hope Neptune is okay…" he said to himself, advancing forward with his head down in thought. He had yet to come into contact with any enemies or anything out of the ordinary and he was also starting to think that he was walking around in circles. What if he never found Neptune or his way out?

Casshern eventually found himself standing in front of the same flight of steps Neptune had recently discovered. "Maybe Neptune is up there…" Naturally he began to climb them as well. Little did he know he had barely missed the excitable girl. Perhaps after making his way to the top he would be reunited with her; that is, if she hadn't gotten too far away already.

By the time Casshern had found the steps, Neptune was already long gone from them. The flight of steps had led her to the inside of an old temple which seemed to have decayed severely due to the ruin. It was safe to assume that she had made her way back to the surface and now she had to search around this new place in the hopes of possibly getting back to Casshern. "Let's see…This place is huge…I dunno where to start searching…" she strolled through the building, sighing loudly with a slightly agitated expression. "UGH! I'M NEVER GONNA FIND CASHY!" She yelled, expecting no one to hear her due to her believing the building was entirely empty.

Much to Neptune's surprise, several mammoth robots had jumped out of absolutely nowhere and began to attack her. "HOLY MAMUH-JAMUHS!" She quickly spawned her Excalibur broadsword and slashed the first one that came to close to her in half with little to no effort at all. While she was distracted with the enemy in front of her, one of the robots picked her up from behind using its claw hand and lifted her up from the ground. "No fairsies. Lemme go!" she demanded, trying to wiggle free from the machine's grasp but to no avail. "Hey…This isn't Casshern." One of the robots said, taking note of her appearance. "huh?" the machine holding Neptune said before looking her over himself. "You're right. It's just some fucking kid." He responded.

An anime sweat drop appeared beside Neptune's head. "I'll have you know that I am a respectable, hardworking adult! Also, of course I'm not Cashy! Do I look like a grown man with a perfectly toned body wearing a white suit with a C on it?!" she retorted, sticking her tongue out at the robot in front of her. Respectable, hardworking adult? That was a lie. The robots had mentioned Casshern. That meant they were looking for him. Then again, who wasn't looking for him?

"What a waste of time. Piss of brat!" the robot holding her said, tossing her into a wall. Neptune forcefully collided with the wall and hit the floor headfirst with a loud thud. "Owie…" she mumbled, looking up at the looming figures above her. Blood began to trickle down the side of her forehead and down her cheek as she managed to stand once more.

"What should we do with her?" one of them asked, looking down at her with its glowing red eyes. "Kill her and keep going." The robot who appeared to be the leader answered. Out of the five robots that were there, only one of them approached the girl. He rose up his metal claw and proceeded to attempt to cut her head off.

"You just made me mad…." Neptune said as a white pillar of light surrounded her which immediately made the machine stop out of surprise. She wanted to finish this with as much ease as possible and so she simply activated HDD. In goddess form, she was an unstoppable force even when she wasn't at full health. Once the pillar of light had vanished, a new figure stood in the girls place.

"I will end this in an instant…" the voice of the woman said calmly with her samurai sword in hand. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?!" The leader of the robots shouted at the sight of what he believed to be new person before him. "I've heard about this woman…" said one of the robots, scanning over her appearance a few times just to be sure. "Yeah… That's Casshern's mistress!" he explained.

This made Neptune blink in surprise. Was he serious with that comment? How had anyone found out about her so soon and where did this mistress thing come from? They had fought enemies before them; it was always a possibility that one of the escaped and then started to spread this ridiculous rumor about them. "Casshern's mistress?!" Neptune and all the other robots said in unison.

"Mistress, huh? In that case! CAPTURE HER! If Casshern finds out we have his mistress he'll come trying to save her! HAHAHAHA!" The leader of the robots ordered his lackeys, laughing maniacally as if it was the most foolproof plan ever. The blue-eyed goddess smacked her hand against her face and began to shake her head as all the robots started to charge at her. "Are you serious…?" Neptune lifted her sword using only one hand instead of two and swung it only once. An algid wave of energy shot out from the sword and completely froze all the robots except for the leader himself.

The leader, not sure about what to do next, backed away in fear and attempted to flee away from the area. "I don't think so…"she said, jumping up over the machine and landing directly in front of the robot, pointing the tip of her blade at him. "Where do you think you're going?" she asked, a small smirk playing across her lips as she started to inch closer.

"P-Please don't kill me." The robot pleaded. If it was physically possible for him to do so, he would have gotten done on his knees and begged her. "Just answer a few questions and I'll consider it." The tables had been turned considerably and she was going to use this leverage to get as much information as she could. "A-Anything! Just…please don't kill me!" he had pleaded once more, his robotic voice filled with terror.

"Good. I want to know where this place is and why you are here. Also, why do so many people want Casshern? I know he is the supposed cause of your being the way it is, however, you act as if there is more to it than just revenge." she asked, still pointing her sword at the machine in case of the event he tried anything.

"I can't give you a precise location because…well…you've seen the world for yourself haven't you? You should know why. This is just a temple in the middle of nowhere. We only came here because we heard that Luna is here. We want to receive her healing and be granted eternal life. We have no idea if the rumors of her being here are true or not. It is rumored that we can gain immortality by devouring Casshern. You're his mistress. You know what he looks like. Everyone else rusting away and dying off like flies while he continues to prance around sparkling new as if the ruin has no affect on him." The machine explained to the electric blue-eyed female.

"So, let me get this straight. You guys heard Luna was here and she can grant immortality, and Casshern, who just so happens to be immortal is rumored to be able to give immortality to whoever devours him? This all sounds so ridiciulous…" she said, finally placing her sword over her shoulder and sighing. "Yes, that is correct. Please forgive us… we're just desperate…" the robot said, his voice shaking as he began to do what sounded like crying. "You don't understand what it's like being a robot in the ruin…every second… every day that passed by….you rust away… steadily reaching death…" he began to say in a sad, trembling voice.

The sudden change of character shocked the goddess greatly. He was a robot, yet somehow he was genuinely sad. There was no way a machine could fake such an emotion so believable. What was going on here? These robots were unlike anything she had ever seen before. If it wasn't for his appearance she would have thought he was human based on how he was now acting.

"I don't want to die…not yet…. I'm sorry for attacking you…. I was just desperate…you must understand!" he cried as Neptune simply looked at him with a softened, more sympathetic expression on her face. She eventually turned her back to the robot and began to walk away. She had to keep moving, he had told her what she wanted to know and so she had no reason to stay around any further. "Thank you…" was all she said as she moved down the hall with her sword still firmly overly her shoulder. "I promised Casshern I would help him find Luna…if she really is here like the rumors say then I am one step closer to fulfilling my promise to him." She thought.

Casshern had been wandering around the temple for a while, still finding no trace or sign of the person of his search. The robot, who Neptune had before met, made his way down the hall towards Casshern, not yet noticing him. He was relived that the purple haired woman had allowed him to live and was going to try his best to make sure that her mercy did not go to waste. He eventually took notice of Casshern and called out his name. "C-Casshern!"

Out of caution, Casshern's face mask and battle helmet appeared and his eyes flashed a bright green. He was well ready to fight if he needed to and had no intention of letting his guard down so easily. After being pursued by so many robots for so often, who wouldn't think that everyone you met was out to get you? "W-Wait! I don't wish to fight!" he assured the man in white.

"You don't…?" Casshern said, somewhat shocked as his mask and helmet retracted back, revealing his brown locks once more. "Y-Your looking for your mistress right? Purple hair…blue eyes…?" he asked, feeling as though it was safe to talk to him now. "You mean Neptune? You've seen her?! Tell me where she is!" Casshern was excited at this news. It had turned out he was right about thinking Neptune was also in the temple.

"She went back that way not too long ago. If you hurry you may catch up to her." He informed the brunette, pointing behind himself. Casshern nodded his head in understanding. "Thank you very much." He said, running past him without a moment's delay. He had no time to waste. If Neptune really was not too far from his current location he couldn't let this opportunity to find her slip by. "Wait…Mistress?" he thought.

The robot watched Casshern run, sighing. "It took everything in me not to attack him…I feel like this is my way of saying thank you to the mistress…" he thought, turning his back to the running figure before proceeding down the hall as he was before.

Neptune had finally reached a large in the temple where water cascaded down the walls and flowed into the large fountains beside them. The moon's gleam pierced the glass in the very back of the room and illuminated the very center where a girl stood. The girls deep blue eyes and Neptune's electric blue eyes met and soon they were in a silent stare off.

There was no doubt in Neptune's mind about who this was in the center of the room. She seemed like d nothing more than child but the deity could feel a strange aura around her that led her to believe that this 'child' was more than she appeared to be. "Luna…." She said quietly.


	11. Chapter 10: Perfect World

Silence filled the room as the unknown girl and Neptune stared each other down for a considerable amount of time. Had she really found who Casshern had been searching for this entire time? If she had, that was wonderful. There was only one problem however. She had no clue where Casshern was.

"You are Luna….right?" she asked, staring her down and awaiting her answer. "Yes I am….who are you?" the girl responded, smiling like an innocent child. The CPU couldn't help but feel like something was terribly off about this girl. She couldn't put her finger on it but she somehow had the feeling that this was going to waltz in an unfavorable direction. "I'm….Neptune."

The girl continued to stand there, looking Neptune over once as she continued to smile. Even that smile made Neptune feel as though something was wrong with her. "You don't look like you need my healing…so why are you here?" Luna asked, staring deeply into Neptune's eyes as if staring into her very soul. "That stare…." She thought before proceeding to answer her question. "I need to talk to you…..about….Casshern." she finally said.

Luna tilted her head at the name she had mentioned. "Casshern….? I remember him… he is the monster that killed me…." She said as her smile slowly changed into a mere smirk. "Please, don't call him a monster…." The purple haired patron goddess was aware of what he had done but she knew better than anyone else that he was far from being a monster. Every time the words monster and Casshern were associated together she couldn't help but feel upset.

"But he is… he killed me and caused the ruin…." Luna's smirk widened as Neptune's face started to go from a blank expression to one of slight annoyance. The ruin; the thing Casshern had supposedly caused due to him killing Luna. "Killed…? Then why are you standing right here in front of me? If killing you is was brought the ruin in the first place then why is it still happening? You're alive and well. You can end this, yet you're doing nothing. You're making Casshern feel bad for something that's not even really his fault…" Neptune was right. This conversation was already going in the wrong direction.

"I know…isn't it beautiful…? I am erasing all the death and decay from this world…" Luna said, turning her back to Neptune and walking towards the large glass window in the very back of the room, staring out at the moon. "Getting rid of death…through death? Where is the logic behind that statement?" Neptune was starting to not like Luna more and more as the conversation progressed on.

"I will grant eternal life to those I believe worthy and allow those I don't find worthy…to die… The people who live through the ruin will live happily in my **new world**. The end justifies the means…" She explained, not turning back to face the goddess behind her. "What…? If that is the case then the end is just as bad as the means. You're telling me you intend to wipe out most of the world's population and only let those you find 'worthy' to continue living on?" Neptune balled her hand into a fist. This Luna girl was really getting to her.

"That's just your opinion… this is all for the sake of the perfect world." The light blue haired girl said, turning her head only slightly to look at Neptune who was now glaring at her. "And it's also your 'opinion' that a world like that is even worth having in the first place." The CPU managed to say while still keeping her same cool and collected composure. "We will see…" Luna said turning her head away and staring back out of the window. "Yes we will…and I will be right." The goddess retorted with confidence.

Silence filled the air once again before Luna began to speak once more. "You're so foolish…" Neptune's sword vanished as she folded her arms and narrowed her eyes in resentment at the girl before her. "No... You're the foolish one. Everyone is going insane because of you. What happened to the Luna who made people happy? No one wants to live forever in world where their family, friends, and loved ones have died off. What gives you the right to judge who's worthy and who's not? What gives you the right to decide the fate of others? I don't care who you are, THAT'S NOT ACCEPTABLE!" Neptune had finally shouted. She couldn't hold back her anger anymore. This Luna person was insane. Her idea of a perfect world was anything but.

Luna turned to face the heated goddess completely, her eyes closed as she stood there quietly for a moment. "I am only doing what I was created to do…" she said in a calm voice. The goddess took a deep breath in trying to regain the same composure she had initially before beginning to speak again. "And what is that? What were you made for?" she asked. The word 'made' implied that she was robotic. How was a robot capable of granting immortality to others?

"Healing... and making the world a better place to live in…**a world free of death**…" she answered, opening her eyes and revealing her deep blue irises once more. It was obvious that Luna truly believed that what she was doing was the best idea for the existence of both humans and robots. However, Neptune strongly disagreed.

"Well that plan seems to be failing horribly... Considering how there is barely going to be anyone left and the people who are left really just want to die because they're now alone. Does this really seem like **the best idea for a new world**; A world full of nothing but contempt and sadness? You have the power to change this... You should be making **a world where humans and robots can coexist and can accept the inevitability of death**. **Everything dies**... And **a world where people can accept their fates and live happy lives up until the end** is a world worth fighting for and a world worth living in. The only people who should live forever are the people who have to so that they can make sure the world stays peaceful. It sounds to me... That you're just a scared child abusing her power." Neptune hoped that perhaps her words would make Luna change her about her 'Perfect World' but she knew that all these words were for naught.

"…" Luna was quiet. It was almost as if Neptune's speech had left her speechless. Was it possible that Luna was considering everything the woman had said to her? If only she could read minds…

"Hm... I shouldn't be the one telling you this... There is someone more fit for this. The one who has suffered the most due to your actions." She said, causing Luna to look back her with a look of discontent on her face. The CPU had finally managed to break the cold-hearted childlike robot and couldn't help but smirk. "What's with that look…?" she said in a teasing voice, placing her hands on her hips with her head tilted to the side.

"You will not fit in my new world…" Luna continued to stare the goddess down with a slight scowl. Who was this strange woman and where had she come from? Her appearance was strange and she seemed to be unharmed by the ruin. Was she immortal? How was that even possible? Without her blood no one could become immortal. This Neptune girl was going to prove to be a major thorn in her side; she could feel it.

"And what makes you say that…?" the blue-eyed patron goddess asked, still smirking at the girl's sudden change in demeanor. The tables had been turned yet again in Neptune's favor and she was enjoying it thoroughly. "You resist the creation of my perfect world. You openly object to ideals…such insolence cannot be tolerated in my **new world**….." Luna said, her voice possessing a hint of anger towards the confident goddess.

"That is solely because your methods are absolutely wrong and unacceptable. I have no problem with you trying to create **a new and better world** for people to live in, but the way you're going about the matter is entirely wrong. I cannot sit by and allow you to play 'god' by determining who has the right to live forever and who doesn't." Neptune said, closing her eyes and placing her hand over her chest.

"I am doing this for everyone…!" Luna responded in a slightly louder voice than she had used throughout the entire conversation. Neptune shook her head, opening her eyes and looking at Luna with a serious expression. "Everyone…or just the people you want?"

Luna fell silent once more, not sure about how she could even respond to what was just said. "It is too my understanding... That the world was happy until you did this..." Neptune added in addition to her earlier statement. Neptune knew she was right about how she felt and somewhere deep inside of her, Luna knew as well. Trying to convince the other to believe in the opposing forces ideals was close to impossible, for they were both stubborn and passionate about their beliefs.

"I did nothing…this is Casshern's fault, remember? He caused the ruin…not me…"the deep blue-eyed robotic girl said softly. At this point she had nothing more to say to the woman. She had been verbally defeated but she wasn't going to idly stand by and let Neptune know that. "Right…. Casshern started the ruin because he killed you. Your death caused it and yet somehow you're alive and the world is still the same. I know what you're doing. You're having all the blame placed on Casshern while you destroy the world." Neptune said.

"In order to create the new world…the old one must be destroyed and reborn. It will be **a perfect world of immortals**. No death…no suffering…it will be…perfect." Luna replied, not going back on her earlier statements. She was going to stay true to her convictions and not let anything or anyone change her mind. She was doing this for the world. Her plan was one only she understood. The world would be a better place and she intended to prove it. "And for the sake of your perfect world…my friend has to suffer…Even though he hasn't said anything directly to me…he has implied many times that he wishes to die. He can't live bearing such a heavy burden on his shoulders; everyone treating him like some sort of demon." Neptune placed her hand over her heart, releasing a sad sigh as her eyes closed once again.

"It makes my heart ache… such undeserved sadness…. I want him to smile…a truly genuine smile. I just want him to be able to put all of this behind him and live a happy life…I…" Neptune shook her head and opened her eyes once again with a smile on her face. "I want him to be happy. That is my mission. I won't stop until I do just that! No one deserves to feel the way he does and I will do everything in my power to make sure that he can smile happily every day!" she declared.

"…Your compassion for him is sickening. Your feelings don't matter…they are insignificant." Luna retorted, looking away from the woman. It was clear to her that Neptune felt very strongly about Casshern. She hoped that this compassion didn't evolve into something that would intervene with her plans. With this in mind, Neptune became even more of a potential threat.

"If my feelings don't matter, then yours don't either. We both have our own ideals and I doubt either of us will be going back on them any time soon. However, I came here because I made a promise to Casshern. My own personal feelings about him are an entirely different and unrelated matter. Fulfilling my promise to him is the most important thing to me now. Nothing else comes before it." Neptune's smile faded and her face soon went entirely blank as she thought about her words.

"….goodbye…Neptune…." Luna said, walking past the purple haired deity and towards the exit of the room. Neptune looked over her shoulder as the girl stopped before leaving, looking back at her as well. "We will meet again. I'm sure of it…" were Luna's last words before leaving the room entirely.

Neptune looked forward and nodded her head, walking over to the window and looking up at the moon in the sky with her hand placed on the glass. "Until we meet again…Luna…" she thought.

A few minutes after Luna's exit, a certain man in white entered the room. His green eyes immediately went to the woman with the long lavender hair on the other side. After searching for so long he had finally found her and was relieved to see that she was just fine. "Neptune…" he said softly but just loud enough for her to hear.

The goddess slowly turned her head in the direction of where the voice came from. A small smile appeared on her face when she saw who it was that had called her name. "Casshern..." she said in a strangely sweet voice. The man in white walked over and stood beside the deity with his usual blank expression. "Are you alright?" he asked, scanning over her appearance for any sign of harm or injury. "Yes…I'm fine…are…you okay?" she asked, also sharing concern for his well-being.

He merely nodded his head at the woman making her smile even more. "Good…I…um…." She started to speak but hesitated, not sure if it was best to tell Casshern about what had just happened or not. She averted her attention away from him and back to the moon. Casshern tilted his head, wondering what it was she had to say. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

Neptune shook her head. "It's just…I met Luna…" she responded. The brunette's eyes widened at what he had just heard. Luna was here and Neptune met her? That could only mean she really was alive. Maybe there was hope after all. "Luna..?! You met her? Please Neptune, tell me what happened." He requested eagerly.

"…she isn't anything like we expected." Was all she had to say to him. The response given to him made the green eyed male confused. Luna was nothing like they expected? What could Neptune have possibly meant by that? He decided to ask further. "Neptune…what are you saying?"

The CPU sighed quietly and turned her back to the glass, resting up against it with her arms folded. "She…she's corrupted…I….I can't even begin to explain…" Neptune's face had gone from happy to generally upset within a matter of seconds. Seeing Neptune this way, Casshern thought it best to not press her further for information and decided to wait for her to say it on her own when she was ready; knowing Luna was in fact alive was good enough for him.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. I understand." Casshern assured her. Neptune's expression softened and soon reverted back to being blank once more. "Thank you…" she said, lifting up from the glass. She turned her body to his and suddenly wrapped her arms around the male, hugging him with her head on his chest. Casshern blinked in surprise at this and tilted his head. "Neptune…?" he said in a questioning tone as he looked down at the goddess with his green irises.

"…I'm tired…" she said, closing her eyes as she rested against his chest and slowly began to drift off while standing up. It had been a long night for her and she just wanted to rest so that she could digest everything that had taken place. Casshern wrapped his arms around the woman to support her and smiled, sitting down while still keep her against him.

Since Neptune had fallen asleep, Casshern had no choice but to allow her to rest and wait for her to wake back up. He understood that she had been through a lot and so he waited patiently, watching her sleep. "She looks….very peaceful." He thought as he stared at her in awe as the moonlight's rays illuminated her face with the utmost elegance.

Casshern still couldn't but wonder what exactly had made Neptune say Luna was corrupted. He could only hope that she would eventually tell him exactly what happened. Perhaps even make him question why he was pursuing Luna in the first place.

Questions, Questions, and even more Questions; The biggest question of them all was if he would ever find out all the answers to these questions that often crossed his mind.

Casshern looked out of the window, staring up at the starry night sky. "Only time will tell. Until then, I have to keep moving forward…" he said to himself. No matter what happened he had to keep going. He felt like he could…as long as he had Neptune to keep him from straying too far off path. There was always the chance he would never find out who he was or even atone for his sins so he had to prepare to accept that possible harsh reality.

"I promise….I'll get your memories back…..Casshern…." Neptune said in her sleep which surprised him. Was she talking in her sleep? That meant she was dreaming about him. A small smile appeared on Casshern's face; even though she wasn't actually speaking to him, hearing her say that made him happy. "Thank you…." He said quietly.


	12. Chapter 11: Control

Neptune stood there quietly in the middle of a newly formed graveyard. Her eyes were fixated on at the figure standing a few feet away from her. All around her was innumerable amount of severely massacred robots that were so heavily annihilated that they had been reduced to nothing more than random scraps of metal.

The figure standing in the middle of the deceased machines began to slowly turn around and face her. It's eyes were glowing a bright teal and its aura was nothing more than that of a cold merciless killer. Her eyes widened in slight fear and shock at what she was witnessing. Her body began to shake as a sudden chill of uneasiness made its way through her body.

The figure wasted no time in lunging towards the purple haired woman, balling his hand into a fist as he prepared to strike her down without a second thought. Neptune gasped, staring into its cold, heartless eyes. She couldn't believe what was happening right now. She had to do something; but what?

_Earlier that day…_

Casshern and Neptune had finally made their way out of the temple, continuing their memory quest. Neptune, still in goddess form, yawned quietly and stretched her arms as they strolled along the barren wasteland. "I slept wonderfully. Thank you for letting me rest against you Casshern. I hope I didn't impose too much by having you hold me as well." The blue-eyed CPU said, looking over at the man in white suit with a gentle smile.

"It was no trouble at all. I actually enjoyed watching you sleep Neptune. You looked very peaceful and beautiful." He responded with his default blank expression. Neptune's cheeks were quickly painted with a light tint of pink. "B-Beautiful…?"

Casshern nodded his head once, not looking her way as he walked. "Yes, very beautiful/" he said once more causing her cheeks to go from pink to red. It wasn't the first time someone had called her goddess form beautiful but the fact that it was coming from him somehow made the compliment much more meaningful.

"I-I'm not that beautiful. There are other women who are much more beautiful than I am." She replied in an attempt to be modest, which was very unusual for her. "I don't think that's true. You're possibly the most gorgeous woman I have ever seen." Casshern said, still wearing his same emotionless expression. He was completely unaware of what his words were doing to the blue-eyed CPU.

"I-Is that so..? Thank you…" was all she managed to say, now looking down with a bright blush on her face. She had no idea why she felt so happy hearing him say those words. Perhaps it was because he was the last person anyone would expect to come out and say something like that. Regardless of whatever the reason might have been she was highly flattered.

"You don't have to thank me for being honest." The brunette responded, finally looking over her way and noticing her head was down. "Is something wrong?" he asked, tilting his head to the side. Was it something he had said? Neptune shook her head quickly, still holding her head down. "No, nothing is wrong. I am completely fine." She lowered her head further, causing her bangs to drape over her face and cover her blush.

Casshern decided to simply take her word for it and turned his head away. However, he couldn't help but feel like he had done something wrong. She didn't seem sad or angry so maybe it wasn't anything to worry about.

When day finally became night, the man in white and the woman in black decided to rest. Neptune retrieved the PHCU from her N-Gear and tossed it onto the ground making the house appear. "Looks like I'll be sleeping in an actual bed tonight~!" the lavender haired goddess said as she opened the front door and walked inside.

Casshern slowly followed in behind her, closing the door behind him as he looked around the house. He was still amazed at how a small capsule could even become a house within the blink of an eye. Neptune didn't seem at all fazed by it. He supposed it was because she was used to such things.

The first thing Neptune did upon entering the house was secure the locks and activate the security system. Immediately afterwards she began to make her way straight to the kitchen. Casshern could hear the sound of her stomach grumbling as the CPU rubbed her belly. "I am so hungry... I've barely eaten a thing since I got here." she said, walking over to the refrigerator and opening it in search of food.

The green-eyed brunette made his way over to the window next to the door, staring out of it. He and Neptune had traveled together for only a few days, but for some reason it felt like so much longer. Casshern placed his hand on the glass window, closing his eyes. He had suddenly developed the strange urge to go outside and walk around by himself for bit. His attention turned over to the kitchen where he saw Neptune still rummaging through the refrigerator for something to eat. "Neptune, I'm going out for a walk."

Neptune looked back over her shoulder at him and blinked. "Uh..okay. Don't stray too far."

"I promise I won't." said the cyborg as he made his way over to the door and opened it, walking out as he closed it behind him.

Casshern began to make his way from the house, staring up at the sky as he wandered around in a straight line to avoid having trouble finding his way back to the PHCU. The cold night air gently brushed against his skin as small clouds of dirt blew in the wind. Ruined structures populated the area, any sign of their former glory completely erased. Sometimes Casshern couldn't help but wonder what the world looked like before the ruin. Whenever he thought about things like that his wish to gain his memory back would slightly increase. If he could remember his past, he could remember the world and what it used to be as well.

In the midst of his walking, the cybernetic male came into the presence of large group of robots. He knew exactly what was going to happen when they noticed him. He was going to be forced into combat against his will as usual. Why was it that everyone thought devouring him would either prolong their life or grant them immortality? He failed to understand why anyone would even wish to continue living in an almost apocalyptic world such as this. If he honestly had a choice; he would choose death over eternal life.

It took no time at all for at least one of the machines to take notice of Casshern's presence and alert everyone else as well. "It's Casshern!" yelled the machine, casting all eyes on the man in white.

"It really is Casshern! Ha! He came to **us** this time."

"I do not wish to fight you..." said Casshern.

"Then that just makes things easier for us! Get him!" the entire group of robots wasted no time in lunging after the cyborg, surrounding him on all sides as he continued to stand there.

Casshern's situation was a prime example of how when people were desperate they became foolish. They knew they were no match for him yet they continued to pursue after him and be destroyed. Was the world so bad to the point that people and machines were so obsessed with living forever that they would threw themselves into situations that would ultimately end their lives regardless? Why did he have to be the one to suffer this fate; having to live through each and ever day in combat? Was this Luna's way of punishing him? To watch the world die and its people go insane and desperate; coming after him just because they thought devouring him would help them survive the ruin? "I told you, I don't want to fight." he said again, avoiding all of their attacks to the best of his capabilities to stress the point of him truly not wanting to harm any of them.

"Let us devour you if you don't want to fight! Stop resisting!"

"I don't want to fight, and I also do not wish to be eaten."

"Then you give us no choice!" one the many robots shouted, successfully managing to stab Casshern through the chest from the front.

The brown-haired cyborg closed his eyes as he felt the machine penetrate through his chest. The forcefulness of the attack had caused blood to splatter over his white suit and somewhat on his face. It certainly seemed like the enemies were winning this time; that is, until a sharp pain began developing in his head. Casshern placed his hand over his forehead, his hand trembling violently. "It's happening...again..." thought the man in white.

"The hell is wrong with him?"

"He's just dying! This is our chance to finish him off!" stated one of the enemies.

"No..." said Casshern quietly to himself, shaking his head in disapproval.

"It's too late for regrets!"

It was at that very moment that Casshern fell completely silent, placing his hand over the arm the machine used to stab him. With one grab, he completely severed the arm from the rest of the machine's body and ripped its hand out of his chest. This made the robot back away in shock since he had not been expecting Casshern to do anything at all based on his earlier statements of not wanting to fight. Now that it was obvious Casshern would no longer being passive and was actually about to defend himself; silence loomed over the robots as they waited for him to do anything at all.

"..." Casshern eyes quickly shot open. His eyes were no longer green, but were now glowing and eerie bright teal.

Neptune rested lazily on the couch with a bowl of cookies & cream ice cream. She had eaten at least three meals since Casshern had gone for his walk. That was roughly an hour ago and now she was starting to worry. The woman in black slowly lifted up from the couch, licking the remaining chunk of ice cream off of her spoon. "Where is he?" thought the young woman as she stood up from the couch and headed back into the kitchen. She rinsed the bowl out in the sink along with the spoon and placed it down. Perhaps it was time to go searching for him.

The electric blue-eyed deity made her out the kitchen and headed straight out the door. She followed the instructions given to her by Gust and pressed the button in the specified corner of the house. The PHCU reverted back to capsule size and Neptune picked it back up, placing it in her N-Gear. Her back processor appeared as she turned around and took off for the skies. She scanned the ground beneath her, looking for any signs the cybernetic being as she flew around just high enough to get a get view of the area around her.

Wherever Casshern was, she was going to find him. There were many possibilities as to why he hadn't returned but she somehow knew that the reason he hadn't come back yet was because he was fighting. She had been with him long enough to know that when he met other robots they would attack, no questions asked. With that in mind she knew she had to hurry and find him before he ended up hurt.

It wasn't long until Neptune had finally caught sight of a battle going on. The only person who stood out in the brawl was Casshern; and he was destroying the machines surrounding him in the most brutal, merciless way ever. She was relieved to see him doing fine but she couldn't fight back the feeling that something seemed slightly off about him. "Casshern!" she called out, descending down towards the scene of action.

Casshern didn't even as much glance her way as he continued to violently obliterate everything in his path, leaving little to no remains. There was no doubt in her mind anymore that there was something off about him. It didn't take long for the male to finish destroying all the robots; and when he did, he stood there with his back turned to the lavender haired goddess.

"Casshern...?"

"..."

"Casshern, please say something..." Neptune said, getting very worried now. She stood there quietly in the middle of a newly formed graveyard. Her eyes fixated themselves on at the figure standing a few feet away from her. All around her was innumerable amount of severely massacred robots that were so heavily annihilated that they were reduced to nothing more than random scraps of metal.

The figure standing in the middle of the deceased machines began to slowly turn around and face her. It's eyes were glowing a bright teal and its aura was nothing more than that of a cold merciless killer. Her eyes widened in slight fear and shock at what she was witnessing. Her body began to shake as a sudden chill of uneasiness made its way through her body.

The figure wasted no time in lunging towards the purple haired woman, balling his hand into a fist as he prepared to strike her down without a second thought. Neptune gasped, staring into its cold, heartless eyes. She couldn't believe what was happening right now. She had to do something; but what?

All signs of the Casshern she once knew were gone and all she saw before her at this very moment was a cold-blooded monster. What had happened to him between the time he had left up until now. She didn't have time to play fifty questions with herself now. Casshern was closing in and she had to think fast otherwise she was going to end up like the robots. "CASSHERN, STOP!"

As if those were the magic words, Casshern's eyes had reverted back to the normal green as he stopped right in front of Neptune with his fist still in position to hit her. He slowly began looking around at all the robots he had killed and then at Neptune. When he realized the position he was in, he started to stand normally once more.

"I'm so glad, that worked." said Neptune, giving a sigh of relief as she placed her hand over her chest.

"..."

"Casshern? What happened? Why were you acting like that?"

"..." Without warning the cybernetic man in white turned away from her and jumped high into the air, leaving her behind. He had to get away from her as fast as he could. After what had happened he couldn't even bring himself to allow Neptune to continue traveling with him. Casshern just wanted her to go back home; away from him.

"Hey!" She called out to him, jumping up into the air as well and flying after the male. What was up with him? Why was he suddenly trying to escape her presence? She wasn't going to let him get away that easily. She was going to stop him and make him answer all her questions.

Neptune began flying after him as fast as she could. The only way she knew how to get him to stop completely was by performing the same actions during the first chase she had with him. She knew that she may end up hurt like the first time, but she really didn't have much a choice. Casshern was a cyborg, he wasn't going to get tired like she would eventually. She had to do it or else she would end up losing him forever.

The second Casshern flipped his body she zoomed in front of him so that he would collide with her. This plan worked and the two of them began to spiral towards the ground for a second time. A large sand cloud filled the area as the two hit the ground. Casshern instantly shot up from the ground, jumping far away from her and land on his feet. Neptune winced in pain as she lifted up from the ground. Her eyes were firmly closed to avoid getting sand in her eyes as she coughed.

The sand cloud had quickly subsided and Neptune slowly opened her eyes, looking over at the cyborg standing a few feet away from her with his back turned to her. The brunette looked back at her once before preparing to take off once again.

"Wait!" Neptune cried out, extending her hand towards him.

"..." the cybernetic male stopped and looked back at her for a second time in silence.

"Why are you running from me, Casshern...?"

"..."

"Come on say something. There is no reason for you to feel like you can't at least tell me that."

Casshern stayed quiet for a moment before turning around and facing her completely. His gaze was on the ground as he eventually began to speak. "I...I nearly hurt you, Neptune."

"Hurt me? Is that why you're running?" she asked him.

Casshern slowly nodded his head, his eyes not leaving the ground. Neptune stood up and began to make her way over to the man. She was a little hurt but not too much to the point of not being able to move. "Casshern..." she said quietly, lifting his chin up with her right index finger so that she could look him directly in the eyes.

"Neptune...I'm sorry..." Said Casshern as his eyes shifted away in a different direction.

"Don't say sorry. You did nothing wrong. You weren't yourself..."

"But..."

"Don't apologize for something you had no control over..." she said, sighing softly and removing her index finger around from his chin.

Casshern was quiet for a moment before looking back at her once more and speaking. "You don't think I'm a monster...?"

Neptune shook her head and smiled warmly at him. "Of course not. I know that what I saw there was not the real you..." she assured him.

"So you don't think any differently of me?" he asked her, starting to feel a bit more relieved at her words.

Neptune placed her hands behind her back and turned around, having her back to him as she walked a few feet away. "Not at all...but I would like for you to explain to me exactly what caused you to act that way. Don't try running away from me again, you hear? I'm assuming you did it for my safety but please don't worry about me. I knew what I was getting myself into when I agreed to help you. I won't let anything get in the way of keeping my promise, not even the person I'm trying to keep that promise to."

The green-eyed male looked down for a moment and then looked back up, nodding his head. "I understand..."

"Good, now explain what happened back there."

Casshern closed his eyes and looked down at where the robot had stabbed him. There was nothing there; No blood, not wound, nothing. It was as if he was never harmed in the first place. "I'm not really sure what it is myself but...whenever I try to avoid fighting I end up losing control and destroying everything in my path."

"Lose...control? You mean there is something making you fights against your will...?" asked Neptune, turning back around with a curious expression on her face. She was right in believing that wasn't the real Casshern. He only acted that way because something made him do it. She felt better knowing this.

"Yes...I can't control myself when it happens..."

Neptune closed her eyes and sighed softly, opening the back up with a bright smile as she walked back over to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Then...I have another promise to make to you."

"Another promise?" Casshern said in a questioning tone.

"Yes! By the end of this journey, I promise to help you gain complete control over yourself."

Casshern stared at her in silence before nodding his head in acceptance and understanding. "Yes. Thank you, Neptune." it was moment like these that made him glad he had met someone like her. He hoped that she really would be able to help him gain complete control. She was changing him...and he couldn't be happier about it.


	13. Chapter 12: Convictions

(Yahoo! 4000 words for this Chapter. I hope you enjoy it or whatever. )

"Behind you, Noire!" Neptune shouted, gripping the hilt of sword tightly and slashing the goblin that had attempted to strike her from behind in half. Noire gasped softly and looked behind her where the enemy had been and then back at Neptune. She scoffed, placing her hand on her hip with her eyes closed all in a cocky way. "Tch...I totally didn't ask for your help...but...Thanks anyway."

A busty green haired woman and blue haired girl approached the two of them from behind. "I see you've finished this room. We have no time to waste. Let's get moving shall we?" the green haired woman said, smiling at both. "Vert, Blanc, You're done already? You just went into that room not too long ago." Neptune said in slight amazement as the girl with the blue hair named Blanc placed her large axe over her shoulder. "It's not like the enemies were a challenge. We smashed them to bits in seconds." she replied with her eyes closed.

"Okay! Okay! We're done! That means we only have one room left, right?" Noire said, opening her eyes and looking over at the large red door in front of them. The busty female named Vert, Blanc, and Neptune all looked at the door as well. The four girls then looked at each other before nodding their head and gazing back over at the door. "The boss room..." they said in unison.

Neptune walked over to the door with a large red key in hand, placing it into the lock on the door and turning it. The lock immediately fell off and the door slowly opened by itself revealing a new room five times the size of the one they were in. "You guys ready...?"She asked, looking back at the other for confirmation before she dared to take a step inside.

"Hell yeah! I'm ready to destroy that fucking thing!" Blanc declared as she zoomed into the room without waiting for anyone else's response. "Well then, we may as well head in as well before she gets herself killed." Vert twirled her spear around one good time and then dashed into the room herself. Noire sighed and simply walked into the room shaking her head. "Let's just get this over; I have other things to do."

Neptune shrugged her shoulders and walked in behind the three of them. Hopefully the group would be able to handle what was quietly waiting for them past this door. As they entered the room they immediately noticed how empty it was. There was literally no sign of any monster anywhere. "hm...where could it be hiding..." Vert thought aloud, keeping a firm grip on her spear as her amethyst eyes glided across every inch of the room.

Suddenly the loud sound of wings flapping could be heard echoing throughout the room. The four CPUs quickly got into battle position, looking around the room but seeing no signs of any enemy. Noire eventually looked up and her eyes met with a ferocious dragon flying above them. "There it is!" the green-eyed goddess exclaimed, holding the hilt of her sword tightly as she jumped up into the air and began charging at the winged beast.

"Noire! Wait!" Neptune called out, flying up after her with her sword firmly held in both hands . The dragon instantly noticed the two patron goddesses and growled under its breath before shooting a massive fireball at them. Noire easily avoided the attack and brought her sword back as she fly to the side of the dragon and attempted to slash its right wing off. Before she could even manage to get her weapon close enough the dragon unexpectedly smacked her away with its mammoth sized tail.

"AH!" Noire screamed, spiraling back down to the ground towards Blanc and Vert. She quickly caught herself before making collision with the ground and hovered in the air. Neptune, who was still near the dragon, lifted her blade as it became surrounded in a purple aura. "I got this." she assured her party members. The dragon averted its attention over to the lavender haired cpu, preparing to fire yet another flaming ball of death. Neptune locked onto the wing that Noire had aimed for before being knocked down. She swung her blade once, sending out a huge purple wave of energy towards the same spot. The wave had successfully made contact with the dragon's wing and had sliced it off with ease.

The winged beast began to fall out of the air ever so slowly, attempting to use its other wing to keep it supported but to no avail. The other three took this as their chance to do so serious damage. "My turn." Vert said, twirling her blade and shooting up towards the enemy with a spiraling wave of green light following behind her. The amethyst eyed goddess slashed the beast several times directly at extremely fast speed. Noire followed this up by summoning her rainbow blade as she took off into the air. She twirled her body, delivering huge slash to its back as she flew over it followed by a direct stab through the side right before the blade disappeared.

The dragon was practically dead at this point as Blanc grinned, lunging after the creature. She headed directly for the beats head, readying her axe as she lifted it up above her and then brought back down with phenomenal force towards it neck. When the attack connected, the dragon's entire body was covered in ice, making its descent to the ground even faster. Neptune flew towards the large block of ice, bringing her sword back as another purple aura surrounded her blade. "This is it!" she called out, preparing for the last strike.

* * *

_You have been disconnected from the server. _

_Please try reconnecting in 30 seconds._

**Four Goddesses Online**

Username/Email

Password

**Login**

Neptune stared at the screen in silence for a very long time before shaking her fists violently in the air. "NOOOOO! WHY?! I was almost done with the event!" she whined, bashing her head against the desk and making crying sounds with no tears coming out. She had finally had free time to actually sit back and relax for a change ever since she got to the ruined planet. When she realized that she could somehow connect to Gamindustri's internet service from the PHCU, she was overjoyed. She had quickly signed onto Four Goddess Online and saw that the other goddesses were playing it as well. There had been an event going on that rewarded whoever cleared the dungeon and defeated the boss in under 15 minutes a prize of over a million in-game cash points to spend at their leisure.

Being disconnected from the server meant that she would no longer be in the party when she signed back on. No longer being in the party meant no prize for her. In the darker recesses of her mind she hoped that the other three had shared the same fate as she. However, considering her luck on many occasions; they were more than likely bathing in those cash points and laughing at her misfortune.

* * *

Noire stared at her computer monitor screen in silence. Her left eye twitched in anger as she read the words _'You have been disconnected from the server. Please try again in 30 seconds.' _Her hand slowly made its way over to the power button and pressed it, turning the computer off. She crossed her legs and folded her arms as she sat in the chair, not saying a word. She closed her eyes and began to tap her finger up against her arm. "There is nothing to be upset about. Nothing at all. Hahaha..." she said, her voice trembling due to the anger she had attempted to suppress.

Anger began to fill Blanc as the disconnection notice popped up on her screen. Her hand soon formed a shaking fist as her bangs fell over her eyes. They were just one move away from completing the event and winning those points; only to be disconnected from the server. "I've been...DISCONNECTED?!" she shouted picking up the computer monitor and throwing it out the window in pure white rage. "BULL-FUCKING-SHIT!"

A soft sigh escaped past Vert lips as she turned off her computer monitor after reading the disconnection notice on the screen. She had been up day and night grinding to increase her level considerably just for this event. While she didn't show it externally, on the inside she was burning with raw hatred and anger. She smiled to herself and even started to laugh. "Looks like today is my unlucky day. I suppose I'll just have do something rational like abuse my influence as a goddess to get the cash points."'

* * *

Casshern entered the room, looking over at the lilac haired girl who seemed to be in utter disarray. He had heard her in the other room and decided to see what was up. "Is everything alright, Neptune?" he asked her.

Neptune slowly looked over her shoulder and stared him with dull, lifeless eyes. "...Yeah." she said, her voice was monotone and unenthusiastic which was unlike her. She slowly stood up, walking over to the male with her back hunched over, head down, and arms dangling in disappointment.

"Are you sure, Neptune?"

"Yeah..." she assured him, lifting up her head and smiling a bit.

Seeing her smile erased his concerns as he nodded his head. "Then are you ready to head out?" he asked the lilac haired CPU. They had put off traveling for a day and had taken the time out to relax; which Neptune couldn't have been happier about. She had said something about playing 'video games.' he wasn't sure what that was but as long as she was happy he didn't care.

Neptune nodded her head and gave thumbs up. "You betcha! I'm ready and purring to go!"

"Then let's go." said Casshern turning his back to her and walking out of the room and towards the front door of the PHCU.

Neptune scurried along after him, walking out as he did and closing the door behind the two of them. She pressed the button in the corner of the house, changing it back to its capsule form. After picking it up and placing it inside her N-Gear, she ran back over to Casshern. "Let's transform and roll out!" she said, activating HDD and transforming into her goddess form, Purple Heart.

Casshern's face became confused in response to this. Normally, Neptune would only transform if she had to fight or had to chase after someone (usually him); but there was no reason for her to be in goddess form now. It wasn't that he didn't like her that way; on the contrary he actually preferred it. He enjoyed her presence regardless of which form she chose to take; they both had their charms. In human form she was cheerful and optimistic and he loved seeing her hop around enthusiastically despite never really understanding her at times. Her goddess form was more mature and serious but retained the same optimism as her human form. He really didn't understand why he preferred her with HDD activated and he probably never would.

Neptune smiled at the brunette in white after finalizing her transformation and nodded her head once more. "Alright, now I'm really ready to go."

Casshern nodded his head as well and started to walk off in the same direction he had taken off in the night before. Neptune followed closely beside him with her hands clasped in front of her. Every now and again she glance over at him from the corner of her eye and quickly look away. Casshern took notice of this and looked over at her. "Neptune...?"

"Yes..?"

"Is something wrong?"

"No..." said the goddess turning her head away from him.

The brunette male came to a halt, walking over in front of her. He looked down at the female with a serious expression as he placed his hand on her shoulder. "Whatever it is that's bothering you, you know you can tell me. You would do the same for me if I had something on my mind."

"..." Neptune looked over at Casshern, staring into his serious green irises for a moment before closing her eyes and sighing softly. "It's about Luna..."

"Luna...?"

"Yes...about what happened that night in the temple… I've been meaning to tell you..."

Casshern immediately became interested after hearing that she was going to tell him what exactly transpired that night. He kept his same serious expression, waiting for her to tell him what he had wanted to hear for the longest time. "Okay, go ahead."

"Remember when I said Luna wasn't what we expected her to be?"

"Yes, I remember. What happened to make you say that?"

"Luna... told me of her plan to create a new world." said the CPU.

The man in white became confused. If Luna wanted to create a new world, wasn't that a good thing? The world as it was now was the least desirable place to be in. "I don't understand. How does that make her nothing like we expected?" he asked, trying to get a deeper level of understanding of what she meant.

"Luna has no intention of saving everyone. She said she will grant immortality to those she deems ''worthy' of being in her new world. Anyone else will be doomed to die in the ruin. She thinks she has the right to pass judgment onto others. She knows she's the population's only way of survival. She's abusing her power and influence to play god..." Neptune looked down and shook her head in disgust. Her hand tightened into a fist for a moment before easing up again. She looked up at Casshern with a saddened expression and stared deeply into his eyes. "I know this isn't my world...but I want to help these people. I just can't allow myself to stand by and do nothing while people die just because of one selfish girl. Casshern, you may have killed Luna and that may have caused the ruin; but you are not the monster here. The only monster in this equation is Luna."

A strange, indescribable feeling started to fill Casshern's body. He had no idea what it was he was experiencing or why it was happening. His expression softened into a gentler faced look as he stared back into her electric blue eyes. The brunette's body began to move on it's almost and before he knew it, he had pulled Neptune into a tight embrace. "Neptune..."

The patron goddess rested her forehead on his chest as she closed her eyes. She eventually wrapped her arms around him to return his embrace and then looked up at him once more. Her expression had gone from sad to a more serious this time. "I know I've made a lot of promises to you lately, but saving your world is something I need to do; not only for you, but for myself as well. I don't know how I'll do it, but I'll find some way to save as many people as I can and keep my promises to you."

"Neptune, you don't have to do this..."

"I know I don't. It's not a matter of what I have to do; I'm doing it because I want to."

"Because...you want to...?"

"Yes. Everything I've promised you so far has also stemmed from my own personal desires." she said, placing her hand on his cheek.

The feeling of Neptune's warm hand against his face sent a strange tingling sensation through his body. His hand which was placed on her shoulder at first; slowly made its way over the hand that had been placed on his cheek. "Personal desires...?" he said in a questioning tone, his eyes not leaving hers for a second.

The woman nodded. "When we first met and I saw how depressing you were; every fiber of my existence just wanted you to cheer up and be happy. I feel like if I help you with your problems then maybe I can make you a happier person. And if I can manage to turn your life around then I will have achieved my goal." she explained.

"You're doing all of this...just because you want me happy..."

"Right and I won't stop until I have. I'll stay by your side forever if I have to." she declared.

Casshern was a bit surprised at her declaration and wasn't sure what to say. A small smile appeared on his face for the first time in a while as he continued to gaze at her. "You really are too kind...I... I don't think I'll ever be able to repay you."

"You don't have to. Remember, while these things are to help you; I'm also doing it for myself. My reward will be seeing you not so gloomy. Like now." she said, removing her hand from his cheek and placing her index finger on his lips. "That smile is my motivation. I want to be able to see this all the time. When you smile that means that just for this moment I have achieved bringing some joy into your life. Now the real challenger is making sure I can get you to do it all the time."

The man in white closed his eyes and started to rest his head on the goddess' shoulder while continuing to have her in his embrace. "I really don't know what to say... I can't find the words to tell you how grateful I am to have met you, Neptune. Thank you...Thank you so much..."

"I keep telling you don't have to thank me, Casshern." said Neptune with a small laugh at the end.

"I know that...but...I can't help it."

"Fine then. You're welcome."

"Thank you..."Casshern lifted his head from her shoulder and looked back down at her with the same warm smile on his face.

"You did it again!"

"Ah... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

"Don't apologize."

"Okay, I apologize for apologizing."

"Casshern, you're still doing it!"

"Sorry! I mean...ah..."

Neptune couldn't help but laugh at Casshern's behavior as he looked away from her in shame. "I just can't help myself."

"Just forget it. Hehe...I understand." she assured the male, standing up on her tiptoes and placing soft kiss on his forehead before pulling away.

Casshern's eyes widened as he placed his hand on his forehead after she kissed it. He stared at her in shock, watching her turn her back to him and walk ahead. Not sure how to react, he merely followed behind her with a smile on his face.

* * *

Meanwhile, a certain light blue haired girl was watching them from afar. Her eyes narrowed at the scene as she observed them in absolute disgust. With motives like that, Neptune was going to prove to be a real thorn in her side. If the strange woman had the intention of preventing her creation of a new world; she would have to destroy her. "I can't allow her to poison my plans..." she whispered, turning away from the two of them and walking off.

"Luna!" a familiar voice called out to her which caused her to stop dead in her tracks.

"hm...?" Luna turned her head in the direction of the where the voice originated only to see Tristen standing before her. "Tristen...correct? What brings you here?" she asked, staring into his soul with her deep blue eyes.

"I want to come with you."

"Why..?"

"Because... I feel like I owe you. You gave me your blood and for that, I owe you my life." he said.

Luna was silent for a moment, closing her eyes as she began to think about the situation. He felt like he owed her? Perhaps she could use this to her advantage. Tristen could prove to be a very useful asset to her in the near future. He would be a pawn on her chessboard of domination and conquest. "Very well then; you may come with me." she said, giving him a sweet smile to hide her wicked intentions.

"T-Thank you Luna." he said, rushing over to her side with wide smile on his face.

"No. Thank **you**, Tristen." said the girl as she began to walk once more.

Luna was going to make sure that nothing intervened with her plans; even if she had to manipulate and use everyone just to make sure. In order to make the world a better place deception and manipulation were necessary factors. Those who resisted change had two choices; Accept change and allow it to happen without any fuss or be destroyed. It was as simple as that. She knew what she was doing was the right thing to do and nothing would be able to convince her otherwise. She was going to create a new, beautiful and eternal world where death no longer existed and nothing was going to prevent her from doing so; not even Neptune.

* * *

The sun had just started to set as Neptune and Casshern finally stopped at the edge of a cliff. They had walked for hours now and conveniently had no problems thus far. "Looks like the sun is getting ready to go down. Should we stop?" Casshern asked the goddess next to him.

Neptune was silent, looking straight ahead over the cliff. Her attention was fixed on what she believed to be a large city in the distance. "Casshern..." she said softly, lifting up her finger and pointing over to what she saw. Casshern's attention riveted over in the direction she pointed in and his eyes soon met with the formation of white buildings not too far away from them. "A city..."

"A city that size must have people in it. We should check it out."

"I agree, but I don't think we'll be able to make it there before nightfall. I'd feel better heading there during the daytime." said Casshern.

Neptune nodded her head in agreement. "Okay then. I say we start walking now, stop once we're halfway, and then rest so we can continue later." She suggested.

"Alright then, let's do that."

Casshern turned around and began walking once again towards the general direction of the city. Neptune followed closely behind him, turning on her N-Gear and watching the map. The world was so badly destroyed that it was almost impossible to know or remember where anything was; unless you were like Casshern and remembered everything perfectly. She had been marking key locations on her N-Gear's map for her own note. If she ever needed to return somewhere she would check the map. The N-Gear was the most useful invention ever made by Planeptune. She started to think about what she was going to label the city as on her map. If there were any natives there she probably wouldn't have to think of a name but she continued to ponder on the subject for when she was faced with the situation. "Hey, Casshern."

"Hm? Yes, Neptune."

"What are we going to do if there are people in the city?" she asked.

"We'll ask around and see if any of them know anything about where Luna may be."

"And what if they're hostile...?"

"We'll fight if we have to and keep moving on. I only hope it doesn't come to that." he answered, looking down at the ground beneath him.

"Well then...we'll see what will happen when we get there." she responded, smiling as she grabbed his hand and interlocked her fingers with his.

This sudden action had surprised Casshern, causing him to glance over at the goddess. A warm smile appeared on his face as he nodded his head in agreement. "Yes...we will."


End file.
